Summary
- Behavioural and environmental factors are primarily responsible for the dramatic increase in obesity in the past 2 decades, although genes play an important role in regulation of body weight.
- Calculating BMI is the most widely accepted method of screening for obesity in children. Abnormal BMI cut-offs in children are determined by age- and gender-specific percentiles.
- The dramatic increase in childhood obesity has led to a marked increase in the diagnosis of impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes mellitus in children.
- Preventing excessive weight gain in children is of paramount importance in confronting the obesity epidemic, as obesity is difficult to treat at all ages, and obese children tend to become obese adults.
- The mainstay of treatment is lifestyle modification to improve diet and increase physical activity. Pharmacotherapy and bariatric surgery may be considered as an adjunct to lifestyle modification in the morbidly obese adolescent.
Other related conditions
- Craniopharyngioma
- Hepatic steatosis
- Hypogonadism in men
- Hypoventilation syndromes
- Pseudohypoparathyroidism
- Acanthosis nigricans
- Asthma in children
- Cholelithiasis
- Cirrhosis
- Constipation in children
- Depression in children
- Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease
- Gestational diabetes mellitus
- Metabolic syndrome
- Idiopathic intracranial hypertension
- Essential hypertension
- Central hypothyroidism
- Polycystic ovary syndrome
- Hypertriglyceridaemia
- Cushing's syndrome
- Obesity in adults
- Obstructive sleep apnoea in adults
- Diabetic cardiovascular disease
- Primary hypothyroidism
- Slipped capital femoral epiphysis
- Type 2 diabetes in children
Last updated: Jul 19, 2012
