Height by deprivation decile in children aged 10 to 11: 2018 to 2022: statistical commentary
Published 20 April 2023
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/height-by-deprivation-decile-in-children-aged-10-to-11-april-2023-update/height-by-deprivation-decile-in-children-aged-10-to-11-2018-to-2022-statistical-commentary
These statistics were requested by the Food Foundation to include in their Broken Plate report. The report presents metrics on the health of the food system and its impact on people’s lives.
The Food Foundation has requested data on the average height of children in year 6 aged 10 to 11 years measured in the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP).
The numbers represented here are based on data from the NCMP. Table 1 uses data from the 2021 to 2022 NCMP and table 2 uses data from 2018 to 2019, 2019 to 2020 and 2021 to 2022. The reasons these years were used is shown in the ‘information methods’ sheet alongside the data tables.
Methodological note
Data is presented in the tables as average (mean) height in centimetres and average (mean) height z score.
A z score or standard deviation score is a statistical measurement describing the distance a value is from the mean in a normal distribution, with positive values being above the mean and negative values below. The height z scores calculated for children adjust for age and sex, based on the distribution of height measurements within the British 1990 growth reference.
Children’s height changes with age, and so use of the height z score rather than actual height values will adjust for any small differences in the age of children within and across measurement years.
Background
The NCMP is a nationally mandated public health programme. An annual surveillance programme measures the height and weight of over one million primary school children each year in reception (age 4 to 5 years) and year 6 (age 10 to 11 years) within mainstream state-maintained schools in England. Some independent and special schools also choose to participate, but these records are excluded from the analysis for national NCMP reports as the majority of such schools do not take part.
The analysis was produced using the NCMP national analysis dataset provided to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) by NHS England.
NHS England and OHID publish analyses of the NCMP dataset annually and many local authorities undertake additional analyses to inform their work to tackle obesity. See the latest NHS England NCMP report.
Responsible statistician and product lead: Caroline Hancock, Catherine Bray.
For queries relating to this document, please contact: [email protected].