Obesity Action Scotland launches new campaign to tackle childhood obesity 

07 Nov 2023

Obesity Action Scotland (OAS), housed in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow has announced campaign pledge, ‘Child healthy weight matters to me’ which focuses on the need to address growing levels of overweight and obesity in children in Scotland.  

This year marks five years since the publication of the Scottish Government’s ambition to halve childhood obesity by 2030, yet the latest data shows we’re heading in completely the wrong direction, with rates of child overweight and obesity continuing to rise and moving us even further away from achieving this ambition.  

Childhood is a critical stage and has a significant impact on health outcomes in adulthood. Evidence shows children at risk of obesity are much more likely to have obesity as adults. Obesity in childhood also has a profound impact on children’s physical and mental health and wellbeing, including increased risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, as well as low self-esteem and impaired social, physical, and emotional functioning. These all impact on the ability of a child to live a happy and healthy life.  

Obesity Action Scotland have already made a start, gaining the support from a number of MSPs at their Parliament stand in June, but we encourage you to get involved to further accelerate the campaign.  

You can support the campaign now by taking part in the following:  

1. Support the pledge by sharing on social media, using content from the toolkit provided here or via your own content – use the campaign hashtags #HealthyWeightForAll and #MattersToMe  
2. Interact with and like the campaign content on social media  
3. Support the campaign with your colleagues by taking a photograph or recording a short video message supporting the pledge and share it online. You can collect specially made pledge boards to hold, provided by OAS at in-person meet ups. A digital version is also available now and photo templates can be downloaded from the campaign page of the website. 

To find out more information, follow this link to the OAS campaign page which outlines all the ways you can get involved and stand up for children’s health, including signing the upcoming joint letter to the Scottish Government. You can also watch the campaign video here.  

If you have any questions, please contact info@obesityactionscotland.org for further assistance.

Category: Obesity