HC Deb 31 January 2002 vol 379 cc561-3W
Chris Ruane

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many adults aged over 25 years were classified as obese broken down by region, expressed as (a) a percentage of population and (b) the total number, ranked in descending order according to percentage figures for the latest year in which figures are available. [30582]

Yvette Cooper

[holding answer 30 January 2002]: The available information is given in the table. The figures are taken from the results of the Health Survey for England for 2000, the latest year for which figures are available, in which 6,201 adults aged over 25 were interviewed. The Health Survey for England provides estimates of the underlying population figures but because of small sample size it is not possible to represent the figures as a number of the total population.

Levels of obesity (body mass index over 30) of persons aged 25 years or over by region and sex
Percentage
Regional Office area Men Women All persons
Trent 24 27 26
Northern and Yorkshire 25 22 24
West Midlands 21 26 24
North West 21 24 22
North Thames 22 22 22
South Thames 22 22 22
South and West 23 20 21
Anglia and Oxford 21 20 21

Source:

Health Survey for England 2000