Childhood obesity also causes short-term health problems
A study by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), in the United States, has revealed that, beyond the long-term effects, the childhood obesity It can also have immediate consequences for children's health, such as double the risk of suffering more medical, mental and developmental problems.
In addition, and according to soon publish the magazine 'Academic Pediatrics', children with overweight have a 1.3 times higher risk of suffering from these problems, after having compared a group of children with overweight and obesity with another who had no weight problem .
"The results should serve as a wake-up call for doctors, parents and teachers, who should be better informed about the risk of other health problems associated with childhood obesity," said Neal Halfon, director of the Center for Healthier. Children, Families and Communities of UCLA and author of the study.
Childhood obesity is responsible for other pathologies
The progressive increase of childhood obesity in the last two decades has already led to a parallel increase in other pathologies, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), asthma and learning problems.
UCLA's new research, based on the US child population, offers the first complete national profile of associations between weight and a wide range of associated health conditions or comorbidities that children suffer during childhood.
In general, the team found that obese children were more likely than those who were overweight to have worse health, more disability, a greater tendency to suffer emotional and behavioral problems, higher school failure rates, ADHD, conduct disorder, depression , learning problems, delayed development, bone, joint and muscle problems, asthma, allergies, headaches, and ear infections.
To verify this, they used the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, analyzing the data of almost 43,300 children between 10 and 17 years old. The association between weight and 21 indicators of general health, psychosocial functioning and specific health disorders was evaluated to adjust the sociodemographic factors.
Of the children who participated in the study, 15 percent were overweight (body mass index, BMI, between the 85th and 95th percentiles), and 16 percent were obese (with a BMI at the 95th percentile or higher).
The UCLA researchers suggest that the continuous change in childhood conditions may end up modifying some chronic conditions of childhood, probably related to decades of appreciated changes in the social and physical environment in which children live, learn and play.
Therefore, they propose that efforts to prevent obesity be directed to these social and environmental influences, and that children be evaluated and managed by comorbid conditions.
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