More than 2.3 million people around the world have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and the large majority of those are over the age of 20. MS is not contagious but some inherited genetic characteristics influence risk of developing the disease. There is evidence that things going on in people’s lives and bodies when…
Tag: Physical Activity
Breaking the cycle – how active travel to school could help tackle childhood obesity and inequality
There are a host of reasons, many of them highly publicised in recent years, as to why we should encourage young people to be more physically active. Now a team of London researchers has shown how the time spent travelling to and from school is important in helping children, particularly those from more disadvantaged backgrounds,…
Time to help our children get a move on
World Health Organisation and United States guidelines say adolescents should do at least an hour’s moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day. But a new global study shows eight out of 10 fail to meet that standard – and there is a widening gender gap. Professor Yvonne Kelly and Fran Abrams outline new research revealing worrying trends which…
Might population-wide increases in physical activity reduce socio-economic inequalities in the proportion of children who are overweight?
Just half of children in the UK achieve the World Health Organisation’s targets for daily activity, and in England the Government has set its own strategy to tackle this. But would increased physical activity lead to fewer children being overweight or obese? And would it help to address social inequalities in the proportion of children…
Off the scales: time to act on childhood obesity
By 2050, it is said that obesity could cost the NHS almost £10 billion a year, with the full economic cost rising from around £27 billion today to £50 billion by then. Today, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) publishes its report, Off the scales: time to act on childhood obesity. It calls on the…
An equal start: longitudinal evidence to support children’s healthy development
Using longitudinal evidence to support children’s healthy development and give them an equal start in life is the subject of our editor Yvonne Kelly’s keynote address at the Growing up in Ireland Annual Conference in Dublin today. Her talk discusses findings from the most recent of the British ‘birth ‘ cohort studies – the Millennium…
Screen use at seven: overweight at 11. Why it’s time to say no to a TV in the bedroom for children
Since the launch of the Childhood Obesity Strategy in 2016, there has been much attention focused on the so-called ‘Sugar Tax’. The March 2017 Budget saw confirmation that sugary soft drinks would be taxed in an attempt to combat rising levels of obesity. This is an important move that has been met with widespread approval…
Be prepared: the mental health benefits of scouting and guiding
Being a scout or a guide when we are young might be a good experience for us in all sorts of ways, but can those positive effects be long lasting though our lives and if so, how? Research using the 1958 Birth Cohort shows a strong link between being a scout or a guide when young and…
Putting a SPRING in the step of mums-to-be
Making sure that mums-to-be are in the best possible health is key to ensuring their baby gets the best possible start in life. But what sorts of things can help them achieve that? In this episode of the Child of our Time Podcast, Professor Hazel Inskip from the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton,…
Sugar-coating the childhood obesity problem
Child obesity figures appear to be on the rise again, causing much concern after earlier signs they had levelled off. The proportion of 10- and 11-year-olds who were obese in 2015-16 was 19.8 percent, up 0.7 percent on the year before. There was a rise of 0.2 percent among four- and five-year-olds. The announcement comes as researchers at the ESRC International Centre for…