Further research should be done before the routine screening of primary schoolchildren for obesity can be recommended, a new study has found.
A systematic review of the evidence for routine screening for obesity and overweight published today in the medical journal, Archives of Disease in Childhood, says there is "little evidence to show that preventive approaches or current treatments actually drive down children's obesity in the long term".
While acknowledging there is a dearth of published evidence linking childhood obesity with morbidity in later life, Dr Donal O'Shea, consultant physician with a special interest in obesity at Loughlinstown and St Vincent's hospitals, Dublin, said he was in favour of screening for obesity in children.
Pointing out that the National Task Force on Obesity has recommended that levels of overweight and obesity in children are identified and screened for at intervals throughout childhood, Dr O'Shea said: "There is compelling evidence at present showing that obese five-year-olds have raised lipids and high blood pressure, while atheroma plaques [a sign of cardiovascular disease] have been found in the blood vessels of older children."
The researchers from the University of York said they were unable to find any studies that assessed the relative benefits or risks of screening for obesity. "The potential harm of labelling children as obese should be set against the current lack of effective long-term treatments," they noted.
With almost 28 per cent of children aged between two and 10 in the UK now either overweight or obese, a parliamentary Health Select Committee has recommended that all schoolchildren be screened. But the authors of the review say: "The use of a population monitoring programme to identify children . . . would represent a move towards screening that would be difficult to justify on the basis of current evidence."
A recent study by the school of physiotherapy at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) found that one in five children aged between seven and 10 here are overweight, with 6 per cent considered obese.
Juliette Hussey, a senior lecturer at TCD, and her colleagues concluded that boys and girls should have their fitness levels regularly assessed while in school.
Commenting on today's research, Ms Hussey said the studies to prove the value of screening for obesity in children had yet to be done. Acknowledging the issue of stigma in overweight children, she questioned whether measuring fitness levels rather than weight would be less stigmatising.
Meanwhile, scientists in Britain have identified a gene that determines a person's chance of gaining weight. People with two copies of the FTO gene weighed on average about 3.5kg (7lbs) more than those without two copies of the gene.