Scottish 7-year-olds most active in UK and least likely to be obese

SCOTTISH seven-year-olds are more active than children of the same age in the rest of the UK, and are less likely to be overweight or obese, according to new research.

A study found more than half of them - 55 per cent - walk to school each day, compared with only one in four in Northern Ireland.

Researchers also found that seven-year-olds in Scotland were the most likely to take part in sports or physical activities on a regular basis.

Nearly half of those surveyed said they were involved in organised after-school or weekend activities at least twice a week.

And just 27 per cent took part in sport less than once a week or never, fewer than in the other countries of the UK.

The findings were contained in the latest survey of the Millennium Cohort Study, which is tracking the development of almost 15,000 children born in the UK between 2000 and 2002.

The study was carried out in 2008/09 and involved 1,628 children in Scotland.

Researchers at London University's Institute of Education also found there were fewer overweight and obese children in Scotland than in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Five per cent of Scottish seven-year-olds were obese, compared to six per cent of English youngsters, 7.5 per cent of Welsh children and eight per cent of those in Northern Ireland.

However, experts said the results did not necessarily mean that children in Northern Ireland and Wales were heavier simply because they were less active than Scots.

Study director Professor Heather Joshi said: "Activity levels are only one of many influences on children's weight about which our study is collecting information. It is also possible that children's weight affects how active they are."

The figures come on the back of recent Scottish Government research that showed one in 10 Scottish boys is morbidly obese and almost no children eat enough fruit and vegetables.

The Millennium Cohort findings appear in a report published by the Institute's Centre for Longitudinal Studies.The report also looked at various other areas, such as children's education, their family backgrounds and happiness.

It revealed that 53 per cent of Scots seven-year-olds live with both parents, who are married - a lower percentage than in Northern Ireland and England, but higher than in Wales.

Scots also have low poverty and high happiness rates.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We welcome the fact that seven-year-olds have been found to be the most physically active in the UK, are the most likely to walk to school and most likely to take part in regular sporting of physical activities.

"The fact that researchers found fewer overweight and obese children in Scotland, than in Northern Ireland and Wales is also encouraging, and a sign that the work we are doing to tackle this huge health challenge is beginning to reap results, although we still have a lot of work to do."

Earlier this year the study released figures that showed children who were given solid foods before they are four months old were more likely to be overweight at the age of three than other infants.

It said that more than one in four babies, 26 per cent, given solids before four months were overweight aged three, compared with 22 per cent of those fed solids later on.