Children's Health

Childhood Obesity

Zulfiya Urunova

— 2 min read

There are 7.8 billion people in the world. Of these, 2.6 billion people were overweight (BMI) in 2020. By 2035, it is expected that more than 4 billion people will be obese, not including children under 5 years old. The number of boys with obesity (BMI >30 kg/m3) aged 5-19 years in 2020 was 103 million. It is predicted that by 2035, this number will increase to 208 million.

There were 72 million girls in this age group with obesity in 2020. To give you a visual idea of the scale - imagine the city of Tokyo (40 million people). In 2020, there were more than 170 million children with obesity, which is about 5 cities of Tokyo.

Why is it important to treat obesity in a child?

Obesity is associated with type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart attack, liver disease, and 13 types of cancer, such as esophageal adenocarcinoma, meningioma, multiple myeloma, liver cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, gallbladder cancer, etc.

For children, obesity is dangerous because it can initiate premature puberty, which will be an additional stress for the child. There is not a single organ or system in a child that would not suffer from overweight and obesity.

What is the cost of childhood obesity?

This is not just the cost of treatment and healthcare; these are costs associated with missed opportunities, lost education, skills, and abilities, that is, with human capital. The UK Health Foundation conducted a longitudinal study, i.e., over a long period of time, of British children born in 1950, 1970, and 1990.

Their goal was to study the short-term and long-term consequences of childhood obesity and whether childhood obesity is a cause of lower educational attainment, lower income, and employment.

First results of the study:

  • This study confirms the link between higher body mass index and lower educational attainment and job prospects.
  • Higher body mass index is associated with depression.
  • Among boys, a higher BMI is associated with bullying and pressure from others for the child to lose weight.
  • Children from the 1990s cohort are more susceptible to the negative consequences of childhood obesity than previous cohorts.

How to diagnose obesity in a child?

Use growth charts; they are a useful anthropometric tool for assessing obesity in children and adolescents.

Growth charts allow you to:

  • Understand the dynamics of obesity development.
  • Assess the degree of obesity depending on age and gender.
  • Suggest the cause of obesity.
  • Determine therapeutic goals.

Where can you, as a parent, find these charts?

Enter "WHO or CDC growth and weight charts" into Google. They look intimidating at first glance, but they are easy to use - print them out and mark how your child is developing.

Reference:

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9467-obesity-in-children

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