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Primary 1 Body Mass Index (BMI) Statistics

Primary 1 Body Mass Index (BMI) statistics capture important information of the growth of young children. Data are presented by: NHS health board, council area, deprivation and sex.

A full publication report and technical report are available.

All publications and supporting material to this topic area can be found on the PHS Scotland - Child Health Website. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on coverage of P1 reviews in 2019/20 as many of these had not been carried out prior to the closure of schools in March. Analysis of reviews for 2019/20 has shown that the Scotland level data is broadly representative of a ‘normal’ school year, nonetheless the low coverage means that Scotland level results shown should be treated with a degree of caution. Analysis of BMI distribution is shown for individual NHS Boards and local authorities where the coverage exceeds 50%, but is not shown for the areas with low coverage.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source Child Health Systems Programme School (CHSP School)
Author Child Health Team
Version 1.0
Last Updated December 20, 2022, 09:35 (GMT)
Created December 7, 2018, 09:55 (GMT)
Contact Address Child Health Team, Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh EH12 9EB
Subject Child Health
Frequency Annual
Time frame of data and timeliness Data is extracted approximately a month prior to publication.
Coverage The target population these statistics aim to cover is all Primary 1 children in Scotland each year. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on coverage of P1 reviews in 2019/20 as many of these had not been carried out prior to the closure of schools in March. Analysis of reviews for 2019/20 has shown that the Scotland level data is broadly representative of a ‘normal’ school year, nonetheless the low coverage means that Scotland level results shown should be treated with a degree of caution. Analysis of BMI distribution is shown for individual NHS Boards and local authorities where the coverage exceeds 50%, but is not shown for the areas with low coverage.
Completeness See the technical report (https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/6548/2020-12-15-p1-bmi-statistics-technical-report.pdf)
Accuracy This is an established data collection which covers a high proportion of the target population. These data are a reliable indicator of childhood (un)healthy weight in Scotland and are broadly comparable with data from other sources.
Continuity of data As the number of NHS Boards included in these statistics has increased since 2001/02 (from four to all fourteen Boards in Scotland), the trend for ‘all participating NHS Boards’ should be interpreted with some caution.
Concepts and definitions See the technical report (https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/6548/2020-12-15-p1-bmi-statistics-technical-report.pdf)
Disclosure The IPHS protocol on Statistical Disclosure Protocol is followed.
Revision statement The publication is produced from the latest data extract from CHSP School which is a dynamic system, with ongoing updating of records. Data for the previous school years are updated in the next release though any updates are expected to be minor.
Official statistics designation National Statistics
Relevance and key uses of the statistics Making information publicly available for planning, epidemiology, provision of services and providing comparative information.
Format CSV
Language English
Links

The NHS Information Centre has published Guidance on Producing UK level Child Obesity Statistics which outlines the available data sources for child obesity statistics for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and the differences in collection and analysis methods.
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