About one in four adults in England is obese, according to the latest Health Survey for England 2021.
The report, published by NHS Digital, also found that 49% drink alcohol at least once a week, and about one in eight (12%) were current cigarette smokers.
For most of 2021, interviews with 5,880 people aged 16 and over were carried out by telephone, rather than in person because of COVID-19 pandemic precautions, which means the findings are not directly comparable with those from previous years.
The latest survey showed that 26% of adults in England were obese – from 8% prevalence among adults aged 16-24 to 32% of those aged 65-74 – and it was lowest among adults living in the least deprived areas (20%) and highest in the most deprived areas (34%).
Of those who were obese, 11% said they had received a diagnosis of diabetes from a doctor, compared with 5% of overweight adults and 3% of those who were neither overweight nor obese.
Of those surveyed, 69% of men were either overweight or obese compared with 59% of women.
Two-thirds of adults (66%) said they had never regularly smoked, while 12% said they were current cigarette smokers. E-cigarette use was reported by 5% of those surveyed.
Among smokers, 16% said they also used e-cigarettes, while 13% of ex-regular smokers said they used them. Only 1% of those who had never smoked cigarettes said they vaped.
Alcohol had been drunk in the previous 12 months by 79% of participants, with 49% reporting they drank alcohol at least once a week.
Men were more likely than women to drink drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week, at 28% compared with 15%.
NHS Digital commissions The Health Survey for England. It is carried out by the National Centre for Social Research with UCL.
Leave a Reply