Obesity in children and adolescents: time for action
• Thomas Reinehr1
Abstract
Obesity in childhood and adolescents is increasing problem around the world. The WHO called this phenomenon a pandemic. In Europe, the region with the highest increase of obesity in children and adolescents is Eastern Germany. Obese children tend to be- come obese adults. Furthermore, obesity is associated with cardi- ovascular risk factors and increased intima-media thickness as an early marker of atherosclerosis already in childhood. Parallel to the increase of obesity, an increase of type 2 diabetes mellitus in adolescents occurred in Europe. Therefore, effective prevention and treatment strategies are urgently necessary. A recent Cochrane review demonstrated that prevention programs are ineffective so far. This finding seems to be caused by teaching healthy behaviour of children and families instead of changing their environment.
The most effective intervention to prevent obesity was to change
the “obesitogenic” environment (for example reduced suited drinks machine in schools). Lifestyle intervention in obese children was effective in a subgroup of motivated children and families. Studies have demonstrated an improvement of cardiovascular risk factor parallel to weight loss in these children. To counteract against the increase of obesity has to be an important goal of all industrialized nations which can only be effective with great impact of govern- ments and the society.
Corresponding author:
• PD Dr. Thomas Reinehr, University of Witten/Herdecke, Vestische Hospital for Children and Adolescents,
Dr.-Friedrich-Steiner-Straße 5, D-45711 Datteln, Germany, Tel.:
+49 (0)2363/975-229, Fax: +49 (0)2363/975-225 T.Reinehr@kinderklinik-datteln.de
1University of Witten/Herdecke, Vestische Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Datteln, Germany
AbstractSpecialareas
©2007 Reinehr; licensee GMS Zeitschrift für Medizinische Ausbildung. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article is permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved with the article's original URL.
This article is freely available from http://www.egms.de/en/journals/zma/2007-24/zma000451.shtml
Please cite as: Reinehr T. Obesity in children and adolescents: time for action. GMS Z Med Ausbild. 2007;24(4):Doc157.
g2p(G20061212.1)
- 1 / 1 - GMS Zeitschrift für Medizinische Ausbildung ISSN 1860-3572