Healthy Scottish Children
Parts of Scotland have the lowest life expectancy in the UK, and the Scots are regularly derided for their perceived love of unhealthy food such as the deep fried Mars Bars. In the media Scotland is regularly portrayed as having high levels of alcoholism, obesity and drug addiction. All of these are real issues, but in the area of children’s health things are far better in Scotland than in other parts of the UK.
Scottish Kids More Active
Scottish 7 year olds are the most active and least overweight of all of Britain’s children according to the ‘Millenium Cohort Study’, which has tracked the development of 15,00o youngsters born between 2000 an 2002. Quoted by BBC Scotland the report goes on to say that Scots kids are also less lazy than their English, Welsh and Northern Irish conteporaries.
Children in Scotland are more likely to play sport than children elsewhere, with almost half being involved in activities outside of school at least twice a week. In other parts of the UK this figure is less than a third.
In addition to this nearly two thirds walk to school on a daily basis – this figure is less than a quarter in some other areas.
All of this has kept the percentage of clinically chubby children north of the border to a slender 5%. The numbers in other parts? England 6%, Wales 7.5% and in Northern Ireland a belt-busting 8%.
Treat Them Mean Keep Them Lean
One in four boys in Scotland was found to hate primary school by age eleven. This is a higher level than that found among their cosseted and overweight counterparts elsewhere. The report stops shy however of making any direct correlation between this and the good levels health.
All of this points to a bright future for Scottish health. It would seem as though the messages regarding healthy lifestyle choice have had a positive impact on the younger generations, so the hope is that as they grow up Scotland will cease, for instance, to have Europe’s highest levels of heart disease, a dubious distinction that has been held since the ’80’s.
“Scotland has got the message” -Professor Heather Joshi, the director of the study.