Study turns to probing obesity (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

1,000 families to unravel medical mysteries of health issue

8:44am Tuesday 29th September 2009 in News By Claire Lomax

A new study to help tackle childhood obesity has started in Bradford.

More than 1,000 families are to play a key role in unravelling some of the medical mysteries surrounding the spiralling childhood obesity rate.

Entitled BiB 1000, the project is the latest study to be carried out by researchers in Born in Bradford (BiB) as they attempt to shed new light on some of the biggest health issues facing the local community.

Latest figures reveal one-in-three children aged between two and ten are overweight or very overweight – and the problem is worsening.

“Many people are aware the UK is experiencing an obesity epidemic,” said BiB programme manager Dr Pauline Raynor.

“Childhood obesity is a serious health problem which can have grave consequences on a child’s future health.

“A lot of work is being carried out nationwide to tackle this problem when children start school, by which time a significant number of children are already very overweight.

“Our study is looking at a different dimension – focusing on very young babies and young children to find out how to prevent them becoming over-weight in the first place.”

BiB 1000 is a group of just over 1,000 mothers who agreed to take part in this strand of the Born in Bradford project when they were recruited for the main study.

The BiB community research team visit the families when the children are six months, 12 months, 18 months, two years and three years.

The first set of participants has just been visited. Babies are weighed and measured, and a questionnaire is completed. The questionnaire asks about the mother’s health and the child’s family, but it is mostly capturing information about the child’s feeding, health and development, childcare, and general health and well-being.

“This information will help us to unravel the very complex issues around how and why children become overweight at such a young age, and how we may try to stop this worrying trend both in Bradford and elsewhere in the UK and beyond,” said Dr Raynor.

BiB was started three years ago and to date about 9,000 babies are part of the cohort.

The size and nature of the study, is attracting national and international interest.

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