"Overweight and obesity affect children's quality of life and cause losses to their physical and mental health. We found that childhood obesity may also affect children's educational achievements, and the risk of continuing to be obese as adults. These factors combined will have huge health problems and economic consequences for children themselves, their families and society."
Dr Sania Nishtar
Co-Chair of the Committee on Ending Childhood Obesity
College obesity is currently one of the most severe public health challenges in the 21st century, and the childhood obesity rate is growing at an astonishing rate.
In 2019, the World Obesity Federation estimated that 206 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 will suffer from obesity in 2025, and 254 million will suffer from obesity in 2030. Among the 42 countries with an estimated 1 million obese children in 2030, the highest ranks in , followed by India, the United States, Indonesia and Brazil . Only 7 of the top 42 countries are high-income countries.
"Report on the Status of Nutrition and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Residents (2020)" shows that more than half of the adults in my country are overweight/obese, and the overweight/obesity rates of children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 and under 6 years old have reached 19.0% and 10.4% respectively. Among them, the overweight and obesity rate of children aged 6 to 17 is higher than 16% in 2015 and 6.6% in 2002.
The problem of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents is also becoming increasingly serious, affecting the healthy growth of the next generation.
The most common nutritional diseases ( iron deficiency anemia , low weight, weight loss, slow growth, overweight and obesity), among which the number of overweight and obese children far exceeds that of low weight and thin children.
Tell parents that the results of the physical examination and evaluation are low weight and weight loss, parents can see their anxiety and worry, and they are eager to know what to do. But when the assessment results are overweight and obese, many parents show happiness.
"Yes, we eat very well"
" Little fat man, you see the doctor and say you are fat, hahaha..."
"We are fat milk "
" It's okay to be fat when I was young, but it's fine when I grew up"
" We didn't eat anything "
...
At first, people thought that children "white fat is health", so there was a misunderstanding that the fatter they grow up is health. Little do they know that obesity brings disaster rather than good fortune to children, and many overweight and obese children are in sub-health. Moreover, 41%-80% of children's obesity can continue to adulthood and to adulthood.
The impact of childhood obesity is multifaceted. As the co-chair of the End of Childhood Obesity Committee said that Childhood obesity not only affects the children's own physical and mental health, but also causes huge health problems and economic consequences to the family and society. A study by the American Journal of Pediatrics estimated that a 10-year-old obese child compared to a 10-year-old normal weight child will have to invest an estimated $19,000 in medical care in the whole life, which is not considered the indirect loss caused by loss of work or loss of ability to work.
The harm of overweight and obesity
infancy
infancy
infancy resistant. Due to the reduced lung ventilation function, obese children have a great chance of suffering from respiratory infection . 1 When the lower respiratory tract is infected with , wheezing, wheezing, respiratory failure, etc. are more likely to occur. Sleep apnea syndrome, causing snoring and even apnea during sleep.
childhood
obese children are often afraid of heat and sweating, and are prone to suppurative acne, folliculitis , seborrheic dermatitis , fatty liver, increased blood pressure, etc.
Take Shanghai as an example. Among the severely obese children found, 16.7% of the children have had high blood pressure and mild fatty liver , and 30% of the obese children have changes in blood lipid .
Surveys found that obese children may experience endarterial fat accumulation and fiber plaque formation before puberty, and obese children have varying degrees of atherosclerosis.
fat is one of the harmful factors for children suffering from hypertension . Changes in children's blood pressure are related to obesity. The higher the obesity, the higher the blood pressure.
Obese children have too high brain fat content, their thinking will become dull and their memory will be relatively poor. When they are easy to learn, they will get stuck in , and their attention will be inconspicuous, and their intellectual development will also be affected.
Adipocytes can secrete a small amount of estrogen. Therefore, obese boys are prone to sexual dysplasia or feminization, while obesity in girls is prone to sexual precocious puberty, leading to shorter adult height.
After adult
A child is likely to develop obesity as adults. Studies have shown that if children are still obese after the age of 8, more than 80% of them can become permanently obese after adults, and it may even increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adulthood.
Overweight and obesity are the major risk factors that cause non-communicable diseases:
- Cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke ), and heart disease is also the world's leading cause of death from 2000 to 2019
- Diabetes
- Musculoskeletal diseases (especially osteoarthritis - a highly disabling degenerative disease of the joint)
- Certain cancers (including endometrium , breast , ovaries, prostate, liver, gallbladder , kidneys and colon, etc.)
In 2017, the " China Children's Obesity Report " published by Chinese Nutrition Society showed that compared with normal weight children, overweight children have a risk of hypertension of 3.3 times; the risk of high triglycerides is 2.6 times; and the risk of low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol is 3.2 times. The health risks associated with childhood obesity can also be sustained into adulthood. In adulthood, obese children have a risk of diabetes than children with normal weight. Compared with people with persistent weight, people with persistent obesity from childhood to adulthood have a risk of diabetes, and the risk of metabolic syndrome is as high as 9.5 times.
In addition, obesity will also affect children's psychology. Although this damage is not easy to detect in young babies, the appearance, body shape, behavior of obese children... has a long-term impact on the development of children's personality, temperament, personality and future abilities. Especially for some obese girls, there is another greater hidden danger: after entering the puberty, endocrine disorders occur, resulting in irregular menstruation of .
Know the harms of obesity, we also need to understand why it causes obesity and take preventive measures.
Definition of obesity
Obesity is a nutritional disorder caused by the multi-factor induced by the energy intake exceeds the consumption of , resulting in excessive body fat accumulation and weight exceeding the reference range.
Factors of overweight and obesity in children
Environment
- Social, economic, cultural, policy, custom, family and other levels have led to an "obesity-causing environment" with increased energy intake and reduced physical activity: food choice environment, bad dietary behaviors and living habits of parents, etc.
During the epidemic, the blockade at home is a political impact, resulting in a reduction in children's activities and an "obesity environment", which is also the "secondary harm" caused by the epidemic.
Own diet and physical activity
- Early life nutrition factors: mother's weight and nutritional status during pregnancy before pregnancy, breastfeeding after birth, etc.
Children's unhealthy dietary structure and dietary behaviors, less physical activity.
Studies have shown that maternal obesity is a complication of mothers during pregnancy and a risk factor for infants to be older than gestational age. In addition, obesity during pregnancy is associated with long-term health consequences of offspring, such as increased body mass index (BMI) in infancy, childhood, and later years and an increased risk of diabetes in adulthood.
After asking parents of obese children during physical examination, it is not difficult to find that obese children generally have good appetite and eat too fast.
Genetic
Obacteria is a complex heritable disease.
Parental obesity is a risk factor for children to develop obesity. Studies have confirmed that polygenic inheritance plays an important role in the occurrence and development of obesity, increasing the susceptibility of childhood obesity.
The younger and more serious the age of obesity, the greater the possibility of genetic factors.
endocrine metabolic diseases
- such as Cushing syndrome , hypothyroidism, growth hormone deficiency , hypogonadism, hyperinsulinemia , polycystic ovary syndrome, hypothalamus-pituitary lesions , etc.
Inner environment
- Intestinal flora lesions, such as obese people, Bacteroidetes in intestinal flora may be reduced.
mental psychological factors
- Such as mental trauma or psychological abnormalities, etc. can cause children to eat too much.
drug
drugs
drugs that cause weight gain include glucocorticoid , antiepileptic drugs, antipsychotics, etc.
Reference materials: WHO official website, Chinese Pediatrics Journal "Expert Consensus on the Evaluation, Treatment, and Prevention of Childhood Obesity in China" (2021)
