Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) was first established in 2005. It is an annual programme which measures the height and weight of children in Reception and Year 6 within state maintained schools. Some independent and special schools also choose to participate. The measurement process is overseen by trained healthcare professionals in schools and not shared with school staff or pupils. Data are captured and validated by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) (prior to 1 April 2013 the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care (NHS IC)) then collates the data at a national level, conducts further validation and analysis, and publishes an annual report. The National Obesity Observatory (NOO) also publish detailed analysis of the NCMP dataset annually. The validated national NCMP dataset is shared with Public Health Observatories (PHOs) in accordance with the terms of a data sharing agreement. The PCTs also undertake additional analyses at regional and local level to inform the work of the NHS and local authorities on the healthy weight agenda. The NCMP was set up in line with the Government's strategy to tackle obesity and to: inform local planning and delivery of services for childrengather population-level data to allow analysis of trends in growth patterns and obesity increase population and professional understanding of weight issues in children be a vehicle for engaging with children and families about healthy lifestyles and weight issuesFurther information can be found at the Health and Social Care Information Centre National Child Measurement Programme webpage.
For the second edition (January 2013) a revised version of the database was deposited, with new additional tables included. The documentation has been updated accordingly.
Main Topics:The database includes information on anthropometric measurements of Reception Year and Year 6 children in schools in England, collected during the school year as part of the NCMP. The database comprises tables covering BMI classification (every pupil is classified into only one BMI category); Government Office Region codes; a range of NCMP data at Primary Care Trust level; a range of NCMP data at record level; information on primary schools that did and did not participate in the NCMP Programme; a description of the school type codes; a range of NCMP data at SHA level; and information on urban/rural indicators. For a full list of fields, and descriptions within the database please refer to the metadata documentation. The database is a ‘reduced’ version of the full NCMP dataset to ensure that the risk of disclosure is minimal. See documentation for details of omitted fields. Standard Measures: Since children’s height and weight are dependent on age and sex, height and weight measurements must be standardised to take these factors into account. The standardised value is a 'z-score' and indicates how far, and in what direction, the measurement deviates from the average (mean) for that age and sex. A formula ('Cole's method') is used to standardise height, weight and BMI (see Cole, T. (1997) 'Growth monitoring with the British 1990 growth reference', Archives of Disease in Childhood, 76(1), pp.47–49). For every measurement, age (in months) and sex, there is a growth curve based on the UK 1990 Growth Reference. This provides the values required by the formula to allow the height, weight and BMI z-score to be calculated. The z-scores are converted to p-scores and allow every child to be assigned to a BMI classification using defined cut-offs. Please see the 'NCMP Guidance for Analysis' in the documentation for further details.
No sampling (total universe)
Clinical measurements
