Sanyaolu Adekunle, Okorie Chuku, Qi Xiaohua, Locke Jennifer, Rehman Saif
Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Nigeria.
Essex County College, Newark, NJ, USA.
Glob Pediatr Health. 2019 Dec 1;6:2333794X19891305. doi: 10.1177/2333794X19891305. eCollection 2019.
Childhood and adolescent obesity have reached epidemic levels in the United States. Currently, about 17% of US children are presenting with obesity. Obesity can affect all aspects of the children including their psychological as well as cardiovascular health; also, their overall physical health is affected. The association between obesity and other conditions makes it a public health concern for children and adolescents. Due to the increase in the prevalence of obesity among children, a variety of research studies have been conducted to discover what associations and risk factors increase the probability that a child will present with obesity. While a complete picture of all the risk factors associated with obesity remains elusive, the combination of diet, exercise, physiological factors, and psychological factors is important in the control and prevention of childhood obesity; thus, all researchers agree that prevention is the key strategy for controlling the current problem. Primary prevention methods are aimed at educating the child and family, as well as encouraging appropriate diet and exercise from a young age through adulthood, while secondary prevention is targeted at lessening the effect of childhood obesity to prevent the child from continuing the unhealthy habits and obesity into adulthood. A combination of both primary and secondary prevention is necessary to achieve the best results. This review article highlights the health implications including physiological and psychological factors comorbidities, as well as the epidemiology, risk factors, prevention, and control of childhood and adolescent obesity in the United States.
儿童和青少年肥胖在美国已达到流行程度。目前，约17%的美国儿童患有肥胖症。肥胖会影响儿童的各个方面，包括他们的心理以及心血管健康；此外，他们的整体身体健康也会受到影响。肥胖与其他疾病之间的关联使其成为儿童和青少年的公共卫生问题。由于儿童肥胖患病率上升，人们进行了各种研究，以发现哪些关联和风险因素会增加儿童患肥胖症的可能性。虽然与肥胖相关的所有风险因素的全貌仍难以捉摸，但饮食、运动、生理因素和心理因素的综合作用对于控制和预防儿童肥胖至关重要；因此，所有研究人员都认为预防是控制当前问题的关键策略。一级预防方法旨在教育儿童及其家庭，并鼓励从幼年到成年养成适当的饮食和运动习惯，而二级预防则旨在减轻儿童肥胖的影响，防止儿童将不健康习惯和肥胖延续至成年。一级和二级预防相结合对于取得最佳效果是必要的。这篇综述文章强调了健康影响，包括生理和心理因素合并症，以及美国儿童和青少年肥胖的流行病学、风险因素、预防和控制。
