Children In Leeds Research Articles

Observational analysis of disparities in obesity in children in the UK: Has Leeds bucked the trend?

SummaryBackgroundThe prevalence of obesity in childhood is of high concern, especially in deprived populations. We explored trends in obesity following the introduction of a citywide strategy focused on preschool children.MethodsAnalysis of obesity prevalence using the National Child Measurement Programme 2009 to 2017 for primary‐school children in Leeds using 5‐year aggregated data for Leeds, comparable cities, and England as a whole.ResultsPrevalence of obesity in Leeds for school entry children fell significantly (9.4% to 8.8%), whilst comparable cities (CC) and England as a whole showed no change (comparison of trends: P < 0.001 and P < 0.001). The reduction in Leeds was primarily in the most deprived (11.5% to 10.5%; trend comparison CC: P < 0.001, Eng: P < 0.001), but also amongst the affluent (6.8% to 6.0%; trend comparison CC: P = 0.087, Eng: P = 0.012).Prevalence in older children in Leeds was unchanged whilst it increased for comparable cities and England (trend comparison CC: P < 0.001, Eng: P < 0.001). In the deprived, obesity increased: Leeds by 1.4%; CC 1.3%, England 1% (trend comparison Eng: P = 0.004). In the affluent, obesity prevalence reduced more in Leeds than elsewhere: 2% in Leeds, 0.8% in CC, and 0.7% in England (trend comparison CC: P < 0.001, Eng: P ≤ 0.001).ConclusionsThere has been a notable decrease in the prevalence of obesity especially amongst the most disadvantaged children at entry to primary school in Leeds. How this was achieved merits in‐depth consideration.

Changing directions: young people and effective work against racism

This article explores effective approaches against racism in work with young people, and the relevance of new policy agendas in the UK. Since the 2001 disturbances, the UK has controversially prioritised ‘Community Cohesion’, with the accusation that this new direction represents the ‘death of multiculturalism’. Drawing on empirical evidence from a project established to work with the racist views of White children in Leeds, and from youth work in Oldham, it explores how such work positively disrupts the public realm and re-thinks the previous framework of ‘anti-racism’. It is suggested that anti-racist educational policies and practice have created a moral code which young people can either subscribe to or be punished by and that by failing to engage within a framework of inclusion and openness with young people who express racist views, educationalists risk alienating them from a positive recasting of those views. The article argues that the failure of past policies as one form of multiculturalism has promoted the alienation of those most in need of intervention regarding racism, and that ‘Community Cohesion’, as actually practiced at ground level, can offer a productive way forward to engage with racism within more intersectional understandings of youth identity and its formation.

The association between the geography of fast food outlets and childhood obesity rates in Leeds, UK

Objective To analyse the association between childhood overweight and obesity and the density and proximity of fast food outlets in relation to the child’s residential postcode. Design This was an observational study using individual level height/weight data and geographic information systems methodology. Setting Leeds in West Yorkshire, UK. This area consists of 476 lower super-output areas. Participants Children aged 3–14 years who lived within the Leeds metropolitan boundaries ( n=33,594). Main outcome measures The number of fast food outlets per area and the distance to the nearest fast food outlet from the child’s home address. The weight status of the child: overweight, obese or neither. Results 27.1% of the children were overweight or obese with 12.6% classified as obese. There is a significant positive correlation ( p<0.001) between density of fast food outlets and higher deprivation. A higher density of fast food outlets was significantly associated ( p=0.02) with the child being obese (or overweight/obese) in the generalised estimating equation model which also included sex, age and deprivation. No significant association between distance to the nearest fast food outlet and overweight or obese status was found. Conclusions There is a positive relationship between the density of fast food outlets per area and the obesity status of children in Leeds. There is also a significant association between fast food outlet density and areas of higher deprivation.

Seeking Information:

This paper presents the preliminary findings of research examining the information seeking of parents. It is the belief of the author that information seeking theory is an important foundational concept of information literacy. The hope is that this investigation, which focuses on the everyday life information seeking of parents, will help to add a different perspective to the concept of information literacy and how it can be relevant to everyday life. The research has been carried out as part of a PhD project and primarily comprises of 33 interviews with parents of primary school aged children in Leeds, UK. Participant observations and informal discussions with professionals supported the interviews. The data is in the process of being analysed. However, at this stage of analysis, there are a number of emerging themes. These themes have been termed as: assessing; catalysts; emotions; hindrances; internet; people; places; questions; system; and trust. This paper will present a summary of these themes as they currently stand. The research focuses on the everyday life information seeking of parents of young children, an area of study that has not received much attention from the LIS community. It is hoped that the research will help provide a fresh theoretical perspective of how information literacy theory can be developed in the context of everyday life information seeking.

The design and validation of a spatial microsimulation model of obesogenic environments for children in Leeds, UK: SimObesity

Obesogenic environments are a major explanation for the rapidly increasing prevalence in obesity. Investigating the relationship between obesity and obesogenic variables at the micro-level will increase our understanding about local differences in risk factors for obesity. SimObesity is a spatial microsimulation model designed to create micro-level estimates of obesogenic environment variables in the city of Leeds in the UK: consisting of a plethora of health, environment, and socio-economic variables. It combines individual micro-data from two national surveys with a coarse geography, with geographically finer scaled data from the 2001 UK Census, using a reweighting deterministic algorithm. This creates a synthetic population of individuals/households in Leeds with attributes from both the survey and census datasets. Logistic regression analyses identify suitable constraint variables to use. The model is validated using linear regression and equal variance t-tests. Height, weight, age, gender, and residential postcode data were collected on children aged 3-13 years in the Leeds metropolitan area, and obesity described as above the 98th centile for the British reference dataset. Geographically weighted regression is used to investigate the relationship between different obesogenic environments and childhood obesity. Validation shows that the small-area estimates were robust. The different obesogenic environments, as well as the parameter estimates from the corresponding local regression analyses, are mapped, all of which demonstrate non-stationary relationships. These results show that social capital and poverty are strongly associated with childhood obesity. This paper demonstrates a methodology to estimate health variables at the small-area level. The key to this technique is the choice of the model's input variables, which must be predictors for the output variables; this factor has not been stressed in other spatial microsimulation work. It also provides further evidence for the existence of obesogenic environments for children.

School nurse cleared by council over sex lessons.

The school nurse accused of giving over-explicit sex education to children in Leeds, has been vindicated by the official inquiry into the affair.

Heaf status 12 years after infant BCG immunization

Uncertainty exists over the long-term influence of Heaf status and immunity of infant BCG immunization. BCG is offered to all Leeds Asian infants with uptake estimated at 86%. We have examined the effect of this immunization policy on the Heaf status of all 12- to 13-year-old children tested in the city in 1988. 6363 children (431 Asians) were eligible for Heaf testing of whom 5379 (366 Asians) were tested. 90 (25%) Asians and 4596 (92%) non-Asians had a Heaf grade 0–1 with no definite previous BCG and were, using current UK Department of Health recommendations, eligible for BCG immunization. With an annual incidence of tuberculosis in Asian children in Leeds of only 6 per 100 000 it is probable that most of the 75 % of Asian children who did not require immunization had persisting immunity from their infant BCG rather than as a result of primary infection. We conclude that infant BCG immunization is effective at providing appropriate immunity, avoiding repeat BCG, in most children at age 12 years.

Inner city tuberculosis and immunisation policy.

Asian children, excluding recently arrived immigrants, had a similar incidence of tuberculosis to white children in Leeds from 1982-6. Children living in the urban priority area were 2.6 times more likely to develop tuberculosis than those living elsewhere. Selection for infant BCG immunisation should not depend on ethnic group alone.

Points: Sexual abuse of children in Leeds

Points: Sexual abuse of children in Leeds

Sexual abuse of children in Leeds

Sexual abuse of children in Leeds

Sexual abuse of children in Leeds.

Temporal trends in physical and sexual abuse of children within a geographically defined area were examined, and cases of suspected sexual abuse referred to paediatricians during 1984 were studied in detail. After remaining static for four years referrals due to all types of abuse trebled between 1979 and 1984, and referrals due to sexual abuse increased from none to 50 a year. In 1984, 50 children (39 girls) aged 1-16 were referred because of possible sexual abuse. Abuse was confirmed or considered to be likely in 30 (28 girls). The perpetrator was a male relative or family friend in 17 cases and a man participating in a child sex ring in seven cases. Physical examination often did not show anything remarkable, but three girls had venereal infections. These figures suggest that paediatricians and child psychiatrists will increasingly be presented with cases of sexual abuse in children.

Profile: parents help themselves.

A short account is given of a voluntary organization, PACE, formed by parents of young handicapped children in Leeds. PACE provides friendship and help to other parents, arranges the toy library, riding for the disabled and other activities for the children. It also raises money that is needed for special projects.

Books

Ethnics and ethnicity at workSandra Wallman (ed.), Ethnicity at Work, MacMillan, 1979, 252 pages. £4.95. French, English and immigrants Gary P. Freeman, Immigrant Labor and Racial Conflict in Industrial Societies: The French and British Experience, 1945–75, Princeton University Press, 1979. Alien movements Guy S. Goodwin‐Gill, International Law and the Movement of Persons Between States. oup, 1978. £14.00. Guestworkers and the German economic miracle Ray C. Rist, Guestworkers in Germany: The Prospects of Pluralism, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1978. 263 pp. A textbook on Muslim law David Pearl, A Textbook on Muslim Law, 1979, Croom Helm Ltd. (also pubd. in Bombay), hardback, ISBN 0856649597, £14.95. paperback, ISBN 0709902158, £6.95.) Linguistics and sociologese Howard Giles and Bernard Saint‐Jacques, eds, Language and ethnic relations, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1979. ii, 251 pp. Further reading Rama Kant Agnihotri, Processes of assimilation: a socio‐linguistic study of Sikh children in Leeds, University of York, D.Phil, dissertation, 1979. David J. Parkin, ‘Language choice in two Kampala housing estates’, W. H. Whiteley (ed), Language use and social change, Oxford U.P., 1971. David J. Parkin, ‘Language shift and ethnicity in Kenya’, W. H. Whiteley (ed), Language in Kenya, Oxford U.P., 1974. A. Tabouret‐Keller, ‘Un champ sémantique: les noms d'appartenance raciale au Honduras Britannique’, La Linguistique 11, 1, 123–133, 1975. Personality variables in prejudice C. Bagley, G. K. Verma, K. Maixick and L. Young, Personality, Self‐Esteem and Prejudice, Saxon House, London, 1979 £8.50. 244 pp. The imprint of discrimination on children Martin Hoyles (ed.) Changing Childhood, Writers & Readers Pub. Co‐op, 1979. £3.25 paperback. Fostering Black Children, CRC publication, 1975, 30p. Paperback. Dawn Day, The Adoption of Black Children, Lexington Books, 1979. £10.50 hardback. Brian Jackson and Sonia Jackson, Childminder: A Study in Action Research; RKP, 1979. £7.95 hardback. Brian Jackson, Starting School, Croom Helm, 1979. £7.95 hardback. Demythologising ethnic crime Philip Stevens and Carole F. Willis, Race, Crime and Arrests, Home Office Research Study No. 58, H.M.S.O. London, 1979, 69 pp. £2.75. British bureaucrats and the ‘Jewish problem’ B. Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe 1939–45, London OUP, 1979. Locating Jewish communities in England B. A. Kosmin, Caren Levy, and Peter Wigodsky, The Social Demography of Redbridge Jewry, Board of Deputies of British Jews. 1979. A century of Whitechapel William J. Fishman, The Streets of East London, Duckworth, 1979, paperback £4.95. With photographs by Nicholas Breach. British Jews and the Age of Emancipation Todd M. Endelman, The Jews of Georgian England 1714–1830: Tradition and Change in a Liberal Society, The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979, n.p

A longitudinal study of caries experience and extraction of permanent first molars in English children.

AbstractOne hundred and twenty eight children in Leeds, England, initially aged 11 years, were examined annually for 6 years. The site of dental caries on 441 permanent first molars was recorded at the first examination. Twelve per cent of the teeth were caries free, 83 % had between one and three DF sites each, and 6 % had four or more DF sites. After 6 years 8 % of the originally caries free teeth had been extracted, compared with 19 % of those that initially had had up to three DF sites and 58 % of those with four or more DF sites at the first examination. With the exception of the distal surface site a consistent pattern of the prevalence of caries was seen in each of the sites in the permanent first molar teeth that were not extracted during the study. In the distal site dental caries became relatively more prevalent as the children grew older. The accumulation of similar information from other populations should provide a useful guide for the prognosis of dental caries in the permanent first molar teeth.

Children's Reading and Children's Television: a Survey of 6 and 7 year-old Children in Leeds

A survey was carried out in I968/69, among 6 and 7 year-old children in Leeds, to try to determine the effects of television viewing on their reading habits, and to attempt to assess the characteristics of a storytelling pregramme on television that appeal to children. Besides data relating to these two investigations, a great deal of information was obrained about the reading patterns of young children, and their usage of publie libraries.

Physical condition of Jewish school children in Leeds

Physical condition of Jewish school children in Leeds