Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many child inpatient admissions with a primary diagnosis of obesity there have been in each of the last five years.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre has provided a count of finished admissions episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of obesity, where the patient was aged between 0 and 17 inclusive for each year from 2008-09 to 2012-13. This information is provided in the following table:

Notes:

1. A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of admitted patient 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 patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

2. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.

3. The patient age in years is taken at the start of the episode of care. With finished admission episodes this is the age on admission to hospital.