Childhood obesity needs drastic measures: Doctors
Monday August 25, 2003 (1739 PST)

August 26 Pak Tribune (Online): Children are piling on fat at an alarming rate and drastic measures are needed to ensure they do not suffer serious health consequences as adults, doctors have warned.

Changes in diets and a decrease in physical activity have contributed to the growing number of overweight children. Type 2 diabetes, a disease of middle age, is being detected in some.

"We have seen in every country in Europe a dramatic rise in childhood obesity rates from about five or 10 percent in the late 1980s up to typically 20 percent in the late 1990s," Dr Tim Lobstein, of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), said in an interview.

"When ministers of health realize what a time bomb they are sitting on they will have to do something about this."

Lobstein described it as a dramatic public health problem that will not be solved by a few lessons at school about eating less fat or an extra 20 minutes exercise at lunchtime.

The World Health Organisation estimates there are 17.6 million overweight children under five. In the United States the number of overweight children has doubled and the number of overweight adolescents has trebled since 1980, according to the US Surgeon General.

In Europe, there is a north-south divide.

"In Greece, in the Greek islands and Italy and Spain it is much higher than in Scandinavian countries and central Europe is in between," Professor Denes Molnar, of the University of Pecs in Hungary, told the 12th European Congress on Obesity.

An estimated 40-85 percent of obese adolescents will stay obese as adults and have an increased risk of suffering from diabetes, heart disease, stroke, muscle and respiratory problems, certain types of cancer and a premature death.

Many overweight and obese youngsters already suffer psychological and social problems. Some are showing early signs of the physical ailments associated with adult obesity.

"Nine percent of obese children already have metabolic syndrome," said Molnar referring to high blood pressure, a large waist circumference, abnormal cholesterol levels and signs of pre-diabetes, which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in obese children in Poland is nearly four percent. In Hungary it is two percent, 1.6 percent in Germany and less in Italy and France, said Molnar.

End.

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