A new WHO study reveals a wide gradient of severe obesity among children in Europe

A new study from WHO Europe presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity in Glasgow (UK) (April 28-May 1) shows that there is a vast gradient in blood pressure. severe obesity in children in Europe, with southern European countries generally recording the highest rates. The paper is led by Ms Angela Spinelli, of the National Institute of Health in Rome, Italy, and by colleagues from across Europe. The research paper is part of the WHO Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI), led by Dr. João Breda, Chief Office of Prevention and Control. noncommunicable diseases, Moscow, Russia and his team.

Serious obesity in children is badociated with cardiovascular, metabolic and other outcomes, both immediate and long-term, for health. Compared to overweight or obese children, children with severe obesity exhibit a much worse cardiometabolic risk factor profile. In addition, treatment and management options have limited impact and are not widespread in the WHO European Region.

Although many studies have compared "normal" childhood obesity across countries, to date no comparative study containing data on severe obesity among children in European countries has been published.

COSI was established more than 10 years ago to estimate prevalence and monitor the evolution of overweight and obesity in children aged 6 to 9 years. Since then, five sets of data have been collected in more than 40 countries and more than half a million children. The purpose of this article is to present the prevalence of severe obesity among school-aged children from 21 countries participating in the first three rounds of COSI data collection (2007 / 2008-2009 / 2010). / 2013).

The total number of children aged 6 to 9 included in the badysis was 636,933 (boys 323,648 / 50.8% and girls 313,285 / 49.2%). The researchers found large differences in the prevalence of severe obesity among the participating countries. According to the WHO definition, the prevalence of severe obesity ranged from 1.0% among Swedish and Moldovan children to 5.5% among Maltese children (Table 2). Countries in Southern Europe (Greece, Malta, Italy, Spain and San Marino) had the highest rates of severe obesity, higher than 4%. In western and northern European countries, such as Belgium, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, the prevalence was less than 2%.

Although in the first three cycles of COSI data collection, some of the most populous European countries, such as Russia, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, were not included, but these data suggest that nearly 400,000 children aged 6 to 9 years are suffering from severe obesity. about 13.7 million children living in the 21 participating European countries in 2013.

The authors say: "The presence of higher prevalence rates of severe obesity in the South is consistent with previous studies on obesity and overweight among European children, adolescents and adults. explanation of this phenomenon remains unclear, but some reasons may be suggested: for example, studies of European children and adolescents suggest that the smaller size found in southern European countries may be an explanation, other explanations that may be related to birth weight, sleep duration, eating habits or physical activity. The Mediterranean diet of the countries of southern Europe could be linked to this serious problem of obesity. "

They add: "Relatively low prevalence rates of overweight and obesity have been observed in countries in nutritional transition (such as Albania and Moldova) .In the absence of prompt, appropriate measures and effective to prevent obesity, prevalence rates in these countries could countries eventually reach the levels seen in other European countries ".

The authors also suggest a possible link between parental education and severe obesity in the child. In 6 out of 8 countries for which parental education data were included in the badysis, children whose mothers had only attended primary or secondary school had a prevalence of 39. serious obesity higher than children whose mother had higher education, but this is only in 3 cases statistically significant difference.

The authors say: "Differences in the level of education of the mother confirm the existence of a problem of inequality that must be taken into account when developing strategies. to combat severe obesity in children School-based health promotion interventions have the potential to reach children from all socio-economic backgrounds and could therefore be an important way to address inequalities in health. "

They conclude: "acting on childhood obesity, including severe obesity, can have major benefits for the health and well-being of the child, but also for health services and When countries develop child obesity surveillance processes such as COSI, strategies can be evaluated – both for prevention and for treatment.This study is the first to study the prevalence of Serious obesity in schoolchildren with a representative sample of 21 European countries.Serious obesity is a serious public health problem and the results of this study show: Because of its impact on education , health, social protection and the economy, obesity must be tackled by various approaches ranging from prevention to early diagnosis and treatment. "

Provided by
European Association for the Study of Obesity