Commission to end child obesity called to take high-level action against a major health problem

Commission to end child obesity today presented its final report to the Director General of WHO, the culmination of a two year process to fight against the alarming levels of obesity and overweight children worldwide.

This report proposes a range of recommendations for governments to reverse the increasing trend in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children under 5 years. At least 41 million children in this age group are overweight or obese, the highest increase in the number of children being observed in countries with low and middle income.

"Increased political will is needed to address the global challenge of overweight and obesity in children," said Sir Peter Gluckman, Co-Chair of the Commission. "WHO must work with governments to implement a number of measures to address the environmental causes of obesity and overweight, and to help children to benefit from the legitimate right to start their healthy life. "

The other Co-Chair of the Commission, Dr Sania Nishtar the adds: "Overweight and obesity affect the quality of life of the child, then faced a number of obstacles, with physical, psychological and health. We also know that obesity has an impact on education and, with the likelihood that these children will remain obese into adulthood, this has major implications for the economy as that of health for themselves, for their families and for all of society. "

According to the report, many children grow up today in environments conducive to weight gain and obesity. Caused by globalization and urbanization, exposure to unhealthy environments (obesogenic) increases in the low-, middle- and high and in all socio-economic groups. The marketing of unhealthy food for health and non-alcoholic beverages has been recognized as one of the main factors in the increase in the number of obese or overweight children, especially in developing countries.

The prevalence of overweight among children under 5 increased between 1990 and 2014, from 4.8% to 6.1%, the number of affected children from 31 to 41 million during this period when, in low- and middle-income countries, the number of overweight children has more than doubled, from 7.5 to 15.5 million.

In 2014, almost half (48%) of children overweight or obese by age 5 lived in Asia and a quarter (25%) in Africa. On this continent, the number of children under 5 are overweight has almost doubled since 1990 (from 5.4 million to 10.3 million).

Six recommendations to governments

 
Promote healthy food consumption

 
Implement comprehensive programs promoting, in children and adolescents, the consumption of healthy food and reducing the adverse health foods and non-alcoholic soft drinks (eg through effective taxation on drinks sweet and curbing the marketing of unhealthy food).

Promote physical activity

 
Implement comprehensive programs to promote physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior in children and adolescents.

Care before and during pregnancy

 
Integrating and strengthening the guidelines for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) with those existing at present for care before and during pregnancy (to reduce the risk of childhood obesity by avoiding the deficit or excess weight birth, preterm birth and other pregnancy complications).

Diet and physical activity in early childhood

 
Provide guidance and support for a healthy diet, sleep and physical activity in early childhood, promote healthy habits and ensure that children grow properly and take good habits (promoting breastfeeding; limiting consumption of foods high in fat, sugar and salt; and ensuring the availability of healthy foods and the possibility of physical activity in child care facilities in infancy).

Health, nutrition and physical activity among school children

 
Implement comprehensive programs to promote healthy school environments, knowledge of health and nutrition and physical activity for school-age children and adolescents (by setting standards for school meals, eliminating the sale of food and drinks harmful to health and integrating health, nutrition and quality physical education in basic education programs).

Weight Management

 
Provide children and young obese services based on the family, with multiple elements and on the lifestyle to help them manage their weight.

The Commission's conclusions call on the WHO to include, within the institutional framework throughout the organization, a transversal approach, covering the whole of life to end child obesity.

The report also identifies a series of actions by others, asking NGOs to raise awareness of child obesity and advocate for environmental improvements, and the private sector support the production of foods and beverages that contribute to a healthy diet and to improve access.