Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review

Special Considerations Relevant to Pediatric Obesity

In: Endotext [Internet]. South Dartmouth (MA): MDText.com, Inc.; 2000.
.
Affiliations
Free Books & Documents
Review

Special Considerations Relevant to Pediatric Obesity

Michael Rosenbaum et al.
Free Books & Documents

Excerpt

In most humans, body fatness is a quantitative trait reflecting the interactions of environment, genotype, and development. The metabolic predisposition to obesity and its co-morbidities in adulthood begins in the intrauterine environment, extends into early childhood, and is further impacted by puberty. An understanding of the pathogenesis of obesity in children, and its implications for the risk of obesity in adulthood, has the potential to inform healthcare providers about early identification and use of precision medicine approaches towards both prevention and treatment. This chapter begins with a review of the epidemiology and definition of pediatric obesity followed by a discussion of risk factors for adult obesity from genetics to the prenatal environment (epigenetics) through childhood. The next section emphasizes that while some adiposity-related problems are unique to the pediatric population, multi-system co-morbidities of adult obesity are increasingly prevalent in children. The chapter concludes with a discussion of recommendations for intervention(s) and an invitation for providers to engage federal and local governments in discussions of ways to unite families, schools, and communities in the battle against the costliest nutritional problem for children in the United States. For complete coverage of all related areas of Endocrinology, please visit our on-line FREE web-text, WWW.ENDOTEXT.ORG.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Biener A, Cawley J, Meyerhofer C. The high and rising costs of obesity to the US health care system. J Gen Inter Med. 2017;32:6-8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cawley J, Biener A, Meyerhoefer C, Ding Y, Zvenyach T, Smolarz B, Ramasamy A. Direct medical costs of obesity in the United States and the most populous states. J Manag Care Spec Pharm. 2021;27:354-366. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rosenbaum M. Epidemiology of pediatric obesity. Ped Annals. 2007;36:89-95. - PubMed
    1. Khera AV, Chaffin M, Wade KH, Zahid S, Brancale J, Xia R, Distefano M, Senol-Cosar O, Haas ME, Bick A, Aragam KG, Lander ES, Smith GD, Mason-Suares H, Fornage M, Lebo M, Timpson NJ, Kaplan LM, Kathiresan S. Polygenic Prediction of Weight and Obesity Trajectories from Birth to Adulthood. Cell. 2019;177(3):587-596.e589. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Perng W, Oken E, Dabelea D. Developmental overnutrition and obesity and type 2 diabetes in offspring. Diabetologia. 2019;62:1779-1788. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources