This measure shows the proportions of children and young people who were overweight or obese.
Numerator: Number of children and young people who were overweight or obese.
Denominator: Number of children and young people whom had their height and weight measured
There is a separate BMI scale for children and young people where BMI calculations take into account the age and sex of the person. The cut-off points for each BMI classification for children and young people are based on the corresponding cut-off points for adults aged 18 years and over. For example, a score of 24 for a 10 year old boy is equivalent to a score of 30 (obese) for an adult.
The cut-points are sourced from Cole et al (2007), Establishing a standard definition for children overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey, 2000.
In the 2011 Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage, attributes summarised by this index include low income, low educational attainment, high unemployment and jobs in relatively unskilled occupations. A lower Index of Disadvantage quintile (e.g. the first quintile) indicates an area with relatively greater disadvantage and a lack of advantage in general. A higher Index of Disadvantage (e.g. the fifth quintile) indicates an area with a relative lack of disadvantage and greater advantage in general.
Methodology
Remoteness
The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), was used to allocate participants to a remoteness area based on their area of usual residence.
Earlier data used the now superceeded Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), 2011-2012 data used the 2006 ASGC and 2014-2015 data used the 2011 ASGC .
Socioeconomic status
The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSD) was used to allocate participants to a SEIFA quintile based on their usual residence (For 2011-2012 and 2014-2015 data the 2011 IRSD was used).
Data sources
ABS 1995 National Nutrition Survey
ABS 2011-12 Australian Health Survey – Core Content
ABS 2012-13 Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey – Core Content
ABS 2007-08 and 2014-15 National Health Survey
Data caveats
The table below presents the age-groups of children and young people for whom height and weight were measured across the different survey years. The proportions of children and young people who did not have their height and/or weight measured are also presented in the table:
| Survey Year |
Age group in scope (years) |
Height and/or weight not measured (%) |
| 1995 |
2-17 |
N/A |
| 2007-08 |
5-17 |
32.5 |
| 2011-12 |
2-17 |
19.5 |
| 2012-13 |
*2-14 |
23.3 |
| 2014-15 |
2-17 |
**37.7 |
*BMI scores for children aged 15-17 years are based on classifications for people aged 18 years and over.
**For these respondents, imputation was used to obtain height, weight and BMI scores.
Although BMI is correlated with body fat, it does not measure body fat directly or the distribution of body fat. Therefore, two individuals with the same BMI can have very different patterns of body fat distribution which contributes to different levels or risk of developing chronic diseases. However, BMI is a simple tool in measuring and monitoring trends in overweight and obesity across different populations.
The 2011-12 NHS data in TableBuilder and 2014-15 NHS data have been randomly adjusted to avoid the release of confidential data. Discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.
