The number of obese primary and secondary school students is on the rise.
According to a report released Sunday by the Education Ministry 14 out of 100 children in elementary, middle and high school are obese. And the numbers have been rising since as early as 2001.
The ministry conducted physicals last year of some 181,000 students from 743 schools throughout the country and suggested that diet, activity level and amount of sleep had a major affect on students’ health.
The report showed that the overall ratio of obese students rose by 0.05 percent from last year. While the ratio for class III obesity, or those that weigh 50 percent more than the average for their height, rose by 0.01 percent during the same period.
Obesity, largely determined by an individual’s height and weight, is divided into three grades with class I being the lowest and class III obesity being the highest.
Students with obesity rose from 11.56 percent in 2007, to 13.17 percent in 2009 and 14.25 percent in 2010. Among that, students with higher levels of obesity rose from 0.74 percent in 2001, 0.83 percent in 2007 and 1.26 in 2011.
However the report also found a high proportion of female students on the opposite end of the spectrum. Up to 7 percent of female high school students were found to be underweight while 15.18 percent suffered from anemia, which can result from a poor diet.
The report found that a large number of students consume fast food that often contains high amounts of fat while providing a low amount of nutrients. More than 57 percent of elementary school students reported consuming fast food once a week, followed by 64 percent of middle school and 66 percent of high school students.
Inversely, as students become older they spend less time exercising. The report showed that 51.72 percent of elementary school students exercised at least three times a week, while 31.65 percent of middle and 22.08 percent of high school students did the same.
The report also found that 43.24 percent of high school students sleep less than six hours a night.
However recent OECD data shows that obesity rates in Korea are still among the lowest of member nations for both children and adults and well below the OECD average.
According to data from the Education Ministry, there are 6,986,847 students in 11,317 elementary, middle and high schools throughout the nation.
