Childhood Obesity Interventions

The epidemic of childhood obesity remains a significant public health challenge worldwide. In the US, rates of obesity among children of all age groups have tripled from the period 1976 to 1980 to the period 2015 to 2018. In nearly all of Europe, obesity in children aged 5 to 19 years has increased rapidly from 1980 to 2016. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, studies reported that these rising trends may be plateauing (albeit at a high level); decreasing activity and poor nutrition during the pandemic, however, might be reversing those gains. Even before pandemic-related effects, several trend analyses have shown a continuously rising prevalence of child overweight and obesity in low- and middle-income countries. Rising global overweight and obesity in childhood has profound implications; they are associated with increased cardiometabolic risk in childhood and reduced self-esteem and quality of life in adolescence. Childhood obesity typically leads to obesity in adulthood, with the associated risks of chronic disease, including cardiometabolic disease, sleep apnea, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease, among others.