IN this first article in a two-part series, we will first take a look at the harmful health effects of childhood obesity and in the second part, on children who are underweight and malnourished.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that globally, obesity has tripled from 1975 to 2016.
Here in Malaysia, we already have the unflattering title of the most obese nation in South East Asia. According to our Ministry of Health’s National Health & Morbidity Survey in 2019, an estimated 50% of our adult population is either overweight or obese, rising from 45% in 2011.
Children are not spared from this trend, with the national obesity prevalence rate in 2019 of 5.6% among children under the age of five, and 14.8% in those aged five to 17 years; a significant increase from 6.1% reported in 2011.
An overweight child is defined as a weight between 85th to 95th percentile for age on the growth chart, and obesity refers to a child above the 95th percentile for age. While some degree of genetics plays a part in developing childhood obesity, it accounts for less than 5% of total cases. Uncontrolled eating and a sedentary inactive lifestyle remain the main factors causing childhood obesity.
Most obese children carry on into becoming obese adults and develop the many negative impacts of obesity on their physical and psychological health.
The consequences of childhood obesity are that the chronic illnesses that we usually associate with older adults are now seen even during childhood.
Among the conditions brought about by childhood obesity include:
