Childhood BMI Statistics

Child Health Systems Programme

The childhood BMI statistics are derived from height and weight measurements collected at routine child health reviews.  All NHS Boards in Scotland  provide a Child Health Surveillance Programme where children are offered routine reviews at various stages in their life.  The majority of Boards record these reviews using the Child Health Systems Programme (CHSP).  As the systems are implemented in the majority of NHS Boards, data they collect on height and weight measurements can be used to derive estimates of the prevalence of overweight and underweight children in Scotland.

Height and weight measurements are recorded at the Primary 1 review.  Previously, height and weight measurements were also collected by a limited number of Boards from reviews at 39-42 months, Primary 7 and Secondary 3.  However, following the recommendations published in the 2005 report Health for All Children (Hall 4) : Guidance on Implementation in Scotland a revised programme of child health surveillance has been implemented in Scotland and the routine reviews at 39-42 months, Primary 7 and Secondary 3 no longer take place.  Consequently the latest BMI statistics for children aged around 3.5 years old are for those born in 2001 and the latest BMI statistics for children in Primary 7 and Secondary 3 are for school year 2004/05.

Implementation Dates

Implementation of the CHSP has been phased and implementation dates should be taken into consideration when examining trends in BMI statistics.

CHSP - Pre-School  (CHSP-PS): BMI statistics for pre-school children have been derived from data recorded at the 39-42 month review on CHSP-PS.  See CHSP-PS implementation dates for further information.

CHSP - School  (CHSP-S): BMI statistics for school children are derived from data recorded on CHSP-S.  See CHSP-S implementation dates and the Background and Explanatory Notes in the relevant statistics tables for further information.