Childhood obesity: prevention is better than cure

Abstract

Obesity and its associated comorbidities have emerged as a major health problem garnering interests from both public health agencies and mainstream media consumers. With increasing awareness on its impact on health, finances, and community at large, it has come to the forefront for scientific research and development of health plans. The need for better strategies and novel interventions to manage obesity is now being recognized by the entire health care system. Obesity and overweight is now the fifth leading global risk factor for mortality. Strategic investment is thus urgently needed to implement population-based childhood obesity prevention programmes which are effective and also culturally appropriate. Population-based prevention is crucial to stem this rising tide of childhood obesity which is fast reaching epidemic proportions. Obesity has its onset very early in life; therefore, children constitute a major group of this disease. It is thus imperative to lay utmost importance on prevention of obesity in children and herald its progress, if present already. Furthermore, treatment is still in preliminary stage, so early prevention holds better than treatment at later stages. This article is an attempt to lay emphasis on childhood obesity as a problem that needs to be recognized early and measures for its prevention.

Keywords: assessment; body mass index; nutrition assessment; obesity; overweight; prevention; treatment.