Obese children are far less likely to finish school than peers of normal weight, according to European research Thursday which also highlighted body image problems in kids as young as six. Britain had the second-highest rate with 23.1 percent, followed by Albania with 22 percent and Georgia with 20 percent, Bulgaria with 19.8 percent and Spain with 18.4 percent, said an analysis of data provided by 32 countries in the World Health Organization’s 53-member Europe region. People are classified overweight if they have a BMI (body weight index, a ratio of weight to height) of 25 and higher, and obese from a BMI of 30. A second study presented at the congress said only 56 percent of children in Sweden who had received treatment for obesity completed 12 years or more of school, compared to 76 percent of normal-weight peers.

Obese children are far less likely to finish school than peers of normal weight, according to European research Thursday which also highlighted body image problems in kids as young as six. Britain had the second-highest rate with 23.1 percent, followed by Albania with 22 percent and Georgia with 20 percent, Bulgaria with 19.8 percent and Spain with 18.4 percent, said an analysis of data provided by 32 countries in the World Health Organization’s 53-member Europe region. People are classified overweight if they have a BMI (body weight index, a ratio of weight to height) of 25 and higher, and obese from a BMI of 30. A second study presented at the congress said only 56 percent of children in Sweden who had received treatment for obesity completed 12 years or more of school, compared to 76 percent of normal-weight peers.

Nearly all Irish adults are likely to be overweight in 15 years’ time, said a study Wednesday that warned of a European “obesity crisis of enormous proportions”. On current trends, some 89 percent of Irish men will be overweight by 2030, and nearly half obese, said a World Health Organization study to be presented at a European Congress on Obesity in Prague. “Even in countries with a traditionally lower prevalence of obesity such as Sweden, obesity rates are predicted to rise sharply,” the congress report said. “Overall, the data show no evidence of a plateau in adult obesity in most countries,” said the statement.