North East Obesity Service Mapping Report

The North East currently has the second highest rates of both adult and child obesity, with 28% of adults (16+years) obese [1], and 19.9% of Year 6 (10-11years) and 10.9% of Year R (4-5years) children obese [2]. However the recent regional health and well being strategy: Better Health, Fairer Health pledged: ‘The North East will curtail its increase in average body mass index and increase the proportion of people whose weight is within safe limits, eradicating the differential between social group. The North East population will be the most physically active in the country, both in its activities of daily living and in its recreational choices. The support available for individuals to alter their activity levels will be clearly and fairly defined and will be provided according to individual need’[3]. In the North East there is currently no central record of obesity related activities. It is therefore difficult to: 1) understand service needs / gaps across the region and 2) disseminate emerging good practice. As part of broader regional strategy to tackle obesity, the obesity service mapping questionnaire was developed to map a baseline of existing obesity services, identify gaps/service needs and highlight emerging good practice. This information will be used to populate a central regional obesity database which will be available via the NEPHO website (www.nepho.org.uk – see obesity micro-site). The information will also help to inform the development of further standardised obesity resources, such as the standard obesity intervention evaluation framework, which will also be available from the NEPHO obesity micro-site.

• Obesity