Almost a quarter of UK GPs are seeing obese children aged four and under | Obesity

Almost a quarter of GPs see children aged four or younger who are obese, according to a survey of UK family doctors.

The “alarming” research also found that almost half (49%) of GPs have seen boys and girls under the age of seven with obesity, including a handful aged under one.

However, four in five family doctors find it difficult to talk to children or their parents about their illness, in case such conversations upset them, make them angry or ashamed.

Dr John Holden, chief medical officer of medical organization MDDUS, who led the survey, said: “These findings are an alarming confirmation of the growing childhood obesity crisis across the country and the very real difficulties this creates in everyday GP consultations. »

The survey asked 540 family doctors about their experience managing obesity, the explosion in the use of weight loss drugs and what widespread levels of dangerous overweight mean for the NHS.

• Nearly one in four (23%) said they had seen children aged zero to four where obesity was a clinical problem.

• Among doctors, 81% noted obesity in people aged 12 months to 11 years.

• Four in five people (80%) find it quite or very difficult to talk to parents of an obese child under 16 about their weight and health, and only 10% say it is easy to do.

• Nearly two thirds (65%) find it difficult to talk to obese young people themselves, and only 20% say it is easy.

Discussing a child’s weight with parents is difficult because they may become upset (72%), angry (47%), or complain (24%) or it may cause shame or stigma (74%). Similar concerns hamper such conversations with children, including that they might develop disordered eating habits as a result.

The complex factors that explain obesity, including poverty, lack of access to nutritious food and children having limited opportunities to be active, mean GPs approach conversations about children’s weight “with care and empathy for families under pressure”, Holden said.

“When parents feel judged or blamed, conversations can quickly become emotionally charged and, as our members tell us, can lead to complaints from distressed or angry parents,” he added.

Katharine Jenner, executive director of the Obesity Health Alliance, a coalition of 65 health and children’s groups, said the large number of GPs who have seen obese infants and young children “is another sign that we are failing children before they even start school. If we are serious about prevention, it must start in the early years, otherwise the damage will follow them throughout their lives.”

She called for reformulation of food and drink products to make them healthier, restrictions on the marketing of products high in fat, salt and sugar, and better support for families.

GPs also revealed in the survey that adult patients who should not be using weight loss drugs are putting themselves at risk by deceptively obtaining them from private pharmacies. These include people with eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, and those already taking other medications that may interact poorly with “big shots” and pose a risk to their health.

Most of the 1.5 million people in Britain who use GLP-1 drugs to lose weight have obtained them privately, with only a small minority receiving them under the NHS, which has strict eligibility rules.

One GP said GLP-1s are “privately accessed, indiscriminately, by many people whose body mass index does not fall into the obese category”. Another told how a patient with a history of anorexia nervosa had also obtained the drugs privately. Two-thirds (67%) of family doctors have seen patients who did so even though they did not meet the eligibility rules.

The findings raise questions about how rigorously private pharmacies carry out appropriate checks on people wanting to start using GLP-1, for example by checking what other medicines they are already taking.

A large majority of GPs surveyed said obesity was likely to be a career-defining public health challenge (92%) and would significantly affect the ability of the NHS to provide care (95%). But 59% think the weight loss measures will save the NHS money – just 22% disagree.

The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs has not commented directly on the MDDUS findings. But a spokesperson said: “Every child deserves the best possible start in life, which is why this Government is taking decisive action to tackle childhood obesity.

“We are limiting junk food advertising on television before 9 p.m. and online, a measure expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories a year from children’s diets; while giving local authorities new powers to prevent fast food restaurants from opening outside schools.

“Through our 10-year health plan, we are moving from disease to prevention to create a healthier nation. »