Effects of weight reduction in overweight and obese children and adolescents

Abstract

In the last decades, in many countries worldwide childhood and adolescent levels of overweight and obesity have reached epidemic status. According to “WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative” [1] the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) ranged from 18% to 57% among boys and from 18% to 50% among girls aged 6 to 9 years. The highest overweight prevalence was found in Southern European countries [1]. In Greece for example, the prevalence of abdominal obesity in 7-year-old children was about 25% in 2010 [2]. A lower, but still very high prevalence was found in Germany: Here, in the period from 2014 up to 2017, the prevalence of overweight/obesity was 15.4%/5.9% in children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years [3], yet no increase in the period from 2003 to 2006 was found. Similar figures were reported by Ogden, et al. [4]: In their cohort the prevalence of overweight and obesity among U.S. children/adolescents was 16.9%, but there was no further increase from 2003/2004 to 2011/2012 [4]. Interestingly, in most of the countries analyzed overweight and obesity were more prevalent in lower social classes [5-7].