As per the World Health Organization (WHO), the obesity rate across the globe has climbed to nearly 1 billion people in 2021. It is predicted to balloon affecting 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men by 2035 according to the World Obesity Federation. Obesity is commonly considered a cause of multiple comorbid and chronic medical conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and cancer.
Cause of Obesity
Obesity is a complex condition that is influenced by genetics and societal and environmental factors. Caren Mangalli, MD, a pediatrics professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine expressed, “While the genetic predisposition for obesity has likely always existed among populations, over the course of the last several generations, multiple changes in our environment have occurred that promote weight gain among people,”. The development of highly processed foods and sedentary lifestyles has been the leading contributors to rising obesity rates.
Another expert, W. Timothy Garvey, MD, a senior scientist at Birmingham Nutrition Obesity Research center advocated that “Changes must be made at a societal level to reverse current obesity trends”. He suggested that education on the harmful effects of obesity on health, efforts to improve access to healthy food, and opportunities to go to the gym or do daily exercise are key components that should be in place.
Obesity in Children
Obesity among children is also a prevailing issue affecting over 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19, and 39 million children, as per the same WHO report. Consequent to the situation, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released on Monday, January 8, new guidelines on how to address childhood obesity.
For the first time in 15 years, AAP’s guidelines take an aggressive approach to treating childhood obesity. It now includes recommending that kids as young as 2 years old who physicians identify as obese can undergo intensive behavioural and lifestyle treatment encompassing nutritional, psychological, and physical therapy. AAP also included the use of anti-obesity medication and surgery for the first time among children ages 12 and up. The novel recommendation is a result of extensive research, clinical trials, and drug approval in the past few years.
Dr. Sandra Hassink, medical director of the AAP Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight and co-author of the new guidelines expressed the need for early intervention rather than later, “We now have evidence that obesity therapy is effective. There is treatment, and now is the time to recognize that obesity is a chronic disease and should be addressed as we address other chronic diseases”.
Despite the divided reception of the public with the new guidelines, Dr. Hassink reassured that medications and surgery as part of the recommendation are not first-line treatments and should be considered only in special circumstances when lifestyle changes prove ineffective for specific patients.
Finally, AAP sees the new guidelines as an opportunity to emphasize the importance of funnelling funds toward public health policies aimed at the prevention of obesity. “It will take a whole society to make this [addressing childhood obesity] possible”, said Dr. Roy Kim, a pediatric endocrinologist at Cleveland Clinic Children’s in Ohio.
Kim said that while recent breakthroughs in obesity treatment emerge, he encouraged that “the best, most effective, safest, and most economical approach [to treating obesity] will always be prevention”.
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