Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions there have been for patients with a primary diagnosis of obesity in each of the last three years; and if he publish that information by (a) sex and (b) age group.

NHS Digital has provided a count of finished admission episodes¹ (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis² of obesity, tabulated by sex and age group, for the financial years between 2014-15 and 2016-17³. This information is provided in the table below.

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital

Notes:

¹A FAE is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

²The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.

³HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care.