November 30, 2003
Who's the fattest of them all?
New government figures reveal alarming levels of obesity in Scotland where children are among the fattest in the developed world. Only Italy and Malta have a higher number of overweight youngsters. . .From the Sunday Times.A report to be published by the Scottish executive tomorrow will reveal that one in five 12-year-olds is now classed as clinically obese — double the previous estimates. South of the border and in America one in seven 15-year-olds is obese. . .
That compares with France and Sweden where only 18% are overweight, Germany where the figure is 15%, the Netherlands where it is 13% and Slovakia where only 10% of children are overweight
Posted by David on November 30, 2003 11:23 PM
Interesting mixture of units in order to obscure relative numbers. "18%" and "15%" (France, Sweden, and Germany) is a greater rate than "one in seven" (Britain and the US), but the phrase "where only 18% are overweight" implies that it's a lesser rate. But you have to do the arithmetic to figure this out, and most people won't bother.
Posted by: jaed on December 2, 2003 10:35 PM
Quite right about the mix, but it doesn't end there: the figures expressed as percentages are for being overweight, which as a medical/public health term, is different from obesity (which the one-in-X formulation is applied to measuring in the article).
Posted by: David on December 3, 2003 2:00 PM
gmail.com