Which PCTs have the highest and lowest child obesity prevalence?
Although 88 percent of all suitable children’s weights and heights are recorded as part of the NCMP 12 percent of children within England are not measured. This means that we can not be certain about the exact obesity prevalence for all children in a particular PCT area. When comparing obesity prevalence across different areas, it is necessary to consider the element of uncertainty – or the ‘confidence intervals’ – around the estimates. A confidence interval is a range of values within which we can be certain, with a particular level of confidence, that the true value for the population will lie. Where confidence intervals overlap for two areas, it is not possible to say that the obesity prevalence is higher or lower in one area than in the other. It is therefore not possible to sort PCTs according to their child obesity prevalence in a meaningful way.
