BiB and the NCMP: reception year measurements Jane West
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Measuring childrens size and growth Child obesity is an
important problem. Over a fifth of children in England start school
overweight or obese. The National Child Measurement Programme
(NCMP) provides important data to monitor trends in BMI in English
primary schools. Height and weight are recorded in reception and
year 6. In Bradford for the school year 2012/2013 87.7% of children
in their reception year at a Bradford primary school had their
height and weight recorded through the programme
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NCMP
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Measuring childrens size and growth Height and weight cannot
identify differences in body composition, in particular body fat.
For a given BMI South Asian children have greater total and central
fat than White British children and this may be important to the
higher risk of heart disease and diabetes seen in South Asian
adults. These differences in body composition are not identified by
BMI It would be helpful to collect measures of size (beyond height
and weight) that can provide estimates of body fat and help us
understand better the differences in body composition across
different groups and their importance to future health.
Information is sent to parents 8 weeks prior to the scheduled
measurements with an opt out consent form should they wish to
withdraw their child from the measurements. Using data provided by
Bradford Education & Learning we match children to their
primary school School nurse teams visit all Bradford schools
between March and May each year and collect triceps (peripheral
fat) and subscapular skinfold thickness (central fat) and blood
pressure measurements. Only children participating in BiB are
measured. These visits were separate from those undertaken to
collect height and weight for the NCMP but were recorded within 4
months of the NCMP measures (mean time since NCMP height and weight
was 2.6 months in 2012/13). Reception year measurements
Slide 8
3730 BiB children were eligible for school reception year
2012/13. Using data provided by Bradford Education & Learning
we were able to match 2535 (68%) BiB children to their school. Opt
out requests were received for 77 children (2%). 2458 (66%) BiB
children were on the school nurse lists for measurement We excluded
twins (n=58), those children who were not of White British or
Pakistani origin (n=810) and those without complete data for all
measurements (height; weight; triceps skinfold; subscapular
skinfold) n=269. This resulted in 1409 participants (659 White
British; 750 Pakistani origin) for the results presented here.
Reception year 2012/13
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The results presented at the PFE are just preliminary findings
and we are not ready to share these online just yet. Please contact
Jane West if you are interesting in discussing the findings so far
[email protected][email protected] Reception year
2012/13 - results
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What next? These measurements have been repeated for reception
year 2013/14 and are currently being collected from children in
reception year 2014/15 A next sweep of data collection is currently
being developed to collect further measurements from BiB children
at ages 8 to 10. Physical measurements give us lots of information
about growth but there are some things that can only be measured in
blood (glucose, cholesterol, insulin) Repeat existing measurements
(triceps & subscapular skinfolds; blood pressure) Additional
measurements - biceps skinfold; waist circumference;
bioimpedance
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Next sweep Bioimpedance Test to estimate the different parts
that make up the body (particularly fat and lean tissues) Requires
the child to stand on a special scale with handgrips Quick and
painless and measures how well the body conducts (reacts to) a very
weak electrical signal Has been used successfully in a number of
studies of UK schoolchildren
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Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the primary schools
in Bradford for their support and co-operation. We also thank the
school nurses and health care assistants involved in collecting
measurements for the BiB study and the public health team at BDMC.
We are especially grateful to all the mothers, fathers and children
who are taking part in the study.
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More information www.borninbradford.nhs.uk Born in Bradford
@BiBresearch [email protected]