Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer among men worldwide, with nearly 1.4 million new diagnoses each year. Links with obesity in adulthood are fairly well established with what appears to be a rise in risk with increasing body mass index. The link is significantly stronger for men than it is for women. Much…
Tag: Obesity
Are children becoming obese earlier?
Are children becoming obese at a younger age compared with the generations before them? New evidence from a research team at CLOSER, making use of the UK’s Cohort Studies, indicates they are. One of the team, Professor Rebecca Hardy from UCL, spoke to Child of our Time about the research. How has the age-related process of…
Ethnicity, birthweight and growth in early childhood
Birthweight varies according to ethnic group but height at the age of five does not. Why might that be? Does it tell us anything about the lives of second and third generation immigrants? And does it offer any useful guidance to health professionals hoping to target disadvantaged groups? Professor Yvonne Kelly outlines recent research with…
Get up, get out, get active!
Just what are the long term effects of being a couch potato as a youngster? New research using the 1970 British Cohort Study shows we may reap what we sow if we don’t switch off the television or the Playstation and get ourselves and our kids off the couch and active. Dr Mark Hamer from UCL…
Middle-aged couch potatoes ‘planted’ 30 years earlier
Parents should routinely switch off the TV and take young children out for a walk or some other exercise in order to increase their chances of growing up to be fit, healthy adults, new research suggests. And if it isn’t feasible to go outside, children could perhaps be encouraged to play interactive video games that…
What teenage girls eat
Teenage girls have the poorest diets of all according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey with less than one in ten girls eating the recommended five-a-day fruit and vegetables. At an ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies Policy Seminar, researcher Laura Weston presents preliminary evidence from NatCen Social Research on adolescent girls’ nutrient intake and the…
Breastfeeding – to a schedule or on demand?
Mums-to-be are frequently advised in baby books that feeding to a schedule is best for their child. But what does the evidence tell us when it comes to the different approaches and what might that mean for parents, practitioners and policy makers? Dr Maria Iacovou from the University of Cambridge presents recent evidence breastfeeding research at an ESRC Centre…
Understanding ethnicity in the battle against obesity
One in five children in Reception class (age 4-5) at school is either overweight or obese according to the most recent figures from Public Health England. By the time they go into year 6 (age 10-11), the figure rises to one in three. Over time our children are becoming increasingly overweight and it’s a tide…
Poor and obese: why poorer adolescents are more likely to be overweight
What are the links between poverty and obesity? And are policy initiatives aimed at getting children to consume less fizzy drinks and sugary snacks enough to tackle the problem? Professor Amanda Sacker looks at the picture for 11 year-olds in our latest Child of our Time Research Talk recorded at a recent ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies…
How racism can damage our children’s development
How a mum’s experiences of racism can damage her child. Professor Yvonne Kelly discusses compelling evidence for considering racial discrimination in the mix of things that impact negatively on our children.