National Obesity Week

Friday 15th January 2021

This week is National Obesity Week.

More Metrics conducts detailed analysis of obesity data, alongside other health and lifestyle measures. These can be used for specific single issue analysis or as input into wider projects. In our COVID-19 analysis we use obesity as a core input in to our risk factor assessments. Unfortunately, the pandemic has highlighted that underlying health issues, including obesity is a significant factor in the severity and prognosis of COVID infection.

Obesity data can also be used alongside other More Metrics data to identify patterns, areas of concern or specific business opportunities. Where do you open your new gym centre? In an area where obesity levels suggest people are in the habit of burning up the treadmill or perhaps where there's a more obvious need to get the population active? By way of example, we took a quick look at a sample of cross tabs between our GeoLifestyle and GeoSociety data.

Females aged 50-54, those concerned about cat health had a 33% propensity to be obese against 32.1% for those concerned about dogs. So perhaps dog owners aren't pounding the streets much more than their cat loving friends.

A greater variation can be seen between those areas showing high Care for Wildlife (34.1%) against areas with broader environmental concerns (30.9%)

In the coming months there is little doubt that Lifestyle data will be used alongside health and other metrics to get a better understanding of risks and opportunities for us all. More Metrics will be using all its capabilities to help drive this understanding.