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
. 2024 Mar-Apr;100 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S48-S56.
doi: 10.1016/j.jped.2023.09.011. Epub 2023 Oct 31.

What causes obesity in children and adolescents?

Carlos Alberto Nogueira-de-Almeida  1 , Virginia Resende Silva Weffort  2 , Fábio da V Ued  3 , Ivan S Ferraz  4 , Andrea A Contini  5 , Edson Zangiacomi Martinez  6 , Luiz A Del Ciampo  4
Affiliations
Review

What causes obesity in children and adolescents?

Carlos Alberto Nogueira-de-Almeida et al. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2024 Mar-Apr.

Abstract

Objective: To present the different aspects that may be involved in the genesis and maintenance of obesity in children and adolescents.

Data source: Narrative review of articles published in the PubMed, Scielo, Lilacs, Scopus and Google Scholar databases, using the search terms: overweight, obesity, pre-conception, prenatal, infants, schoolchildren, children, and adolescents. The search was conducted in studies written in Portuguese, English and Spanish, including narrative, integrative or systematic reviews, meta-analyses, cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies, published between 2003 and 2023.

Data synthesis: A total of 598 studies were initially screened and 60 of them, which showed the main biopsychosocial aspects related to greater risks of excessive adiposity in the pediatric age, were included in the review. The data were presented taking into account the incidence of risk factors and their consequences in six periods: pre-conception, pre-natal, infant, preschool, school age, and adolescence.

Conclusions: The causal factors described in the scientific literature that have been shown to be related to obesity in childhood and adolescence are presented.

Keywords: Adolescent; Causality; Child; Childhood obesity; Obesity; Pregnancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig 1
Figure 1
Causal factors associated to obesity in childhood and adolescence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Deveci A.C., Keown-Stoneman C.D., Maguire J.L., O'Connor D.L., Anderson L.N., Dennis C.L., et al. Maternal BMI in the preconception period, and association with child zBMI growth rates. Pediatr Obes. 2023;18:e12999. - PubMed
    1. Dalrymple K.V., Vogel C., Godfrey K.M., Baird J., Harvey N.C., Hanson M.A., et al. Longitudinal dietary trajectories from preconception to mid-childhood in women and children in the Southampton Women's Survey and their relation to offspring adiposity: a group-based trajectory modelling approach. Int J Obes. 2022;46:758–766. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Deveci A.C., Keown-Stoneman C.D., Maguire J.L., O'Connor D.L., Anderson L.N., Dennis C.L., et al. Paternal BMI in the preconception period, and the association with child zBMI. Int J Obes. 2023;47:280–287. - PubMed
    1. Mejia-Lancheros C., Mehegan J., Murrin C.M., Kelleher C.C., Lifeways Cross-Generation Cohort Study G Smoking habit from the paternal line and grand-child's overweight or obesity status in early childhood: prospective findings from the lifeways cross-generation cohort study. Int J Obes. 2018;42:1853–1870. - PubMed
    1. Barker D.J. Obesity and early life. Obes Rev. 2007;8:S45–S49. - PubMed