Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is still widely regarded as a cosmetic or optic problem. This is not only true for parents, who frequently do not recognise, that a child is or becomes obese, it is also true for many physicians, paediatricians, general practitioners, teachers and so on. The reason for their refusal to believe overweight that obesity is present in a particular child is manifold: some parents/grandparents think that a baby/child with overweight is healthier than a child which looks undernourished. The other reason is the fact that a majority of parents do not want to realize that their child is overweight or obese, because they are suppressing their feelings to be responsible for this fact. The only consequence of these facts is that the scientific and medical community must increase all supreme efforts to improve information, education both on a medical and on a psychological basis. In this regard, the psychological problems of children suffering from obesity is also widely underestimated many obese children and adolescents report that they are being mocked and disrespected from their peers in school and in their social environment. Some of them have severe problems to maintain social contacts which often follows isolation and depression (Rankin Citation2016; Smith and Kobayashi Citation2020).
The other side of the coin is the economic damage and injury of obesity in the young population. A recent publication of OECD describes clearly that children pay a large price being overweight or obese. They have poorer success in their schools and less possibilities for a higher education. They have less “life satisfaction”.
OECD countries spend 8,4% of their budget for the treatment of obesity and follow-up diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, joint problems, liver damages. Psychological problems, etc.). Overweight is responsible for approximately 70% of the costs for diabetes, 23% cardiovascular diseases and 9% for cancer. The experts of OECD conclude, that prevention of obesity is the best method to avoid most of these medical, psychological and economic problems (OECD Citation2019).
They have calculated that 1 USD spent on prevention is accompanied by an economic return of 6 USD.
These facts are striking arguments, that the scientific activity with all the problems of obesity of children and adolescents deserves special attention and research should be forced (NCD-RisC Citation2020).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Funding
References
- OECD. 2019. The heavy burden of obesity: the economics of prevention, OECD health policy studies. Paris: OECD Publishing. doi:10.1787/67450d67-en.
- Rankin J, Matthews L, Cobley S, Han A, Sanders R, Wiltshire HD, Baker JS. 2016. Psychological consequences of childhood obesity: psychiatric comorbidity and prevention. Adolesc Health Med Ther. 7:125–146. doi:10.2147/AHMT.S101631.
- Smith JD, Fu E, Kobayashi MA. 2020. Prevention and management of childhood obesity and its psychological and health comorbidities. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 16:351–378. doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-100219-060201.
- NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). 2020. Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants. Lancet. 396(10261):1511–1524. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31859-6.