Using data prepared by the Global Burden of Disease collaborative for 2000 and 2013, the UK-based World Obesity Federation has estimated that by 2025, some 268 million children aged 5-17 years may be overweight, including 91 million obese, assuming no policy interventions have proved effective at changing current trends.
On this basis, the likely numbers of children in 2025 with obesity-related illness will also be high: impaired glucose tolerance (12 million), type 2 diabetes (4 million), hypertension (27 million) and fatty liver disease (38 million).
The report warns that health authorities must plan on the basis of these predicted increases. If they plan on the basis of WHO targets for 'no increase in childhood obesity by 2025', they risk a significant shortfall in appropriate healthcare provision.
Read the paper by Tim Lobstein and Rosemary Jackson-Leach, in Pediatric Obesity, here.
Read more here about Sustain's campaigning work for healthier children's diets.
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
