Sample Newsletter February 2005

Childhood Obesity Conference

Department of Human Nutrition, Glasgow, 4th October 2004

Cedric de Voil

This conference was held at Scotland’s National Football Stadium, Hampden Park.  Two papers were delivered:

Dr. John Reilly (Glasgow) spoke about “The Obesity Epidemic prevalence, health consequences, energy balance and diagnosis”.

Dr. David Wilson (Edinburgh) discussed “Evidence on Prevention and treatment of childhood obesity”.
Obesity is an energy imbalance. (Energy intake) – (Sum of energy output). If positive then energy is stored.

The Obesity Epidemic.  Figures quoted were for Scotland for the year 2001.  There is a high and increasing prevalence –

20% of 11 to 12 year olds  10% of 4/5 year olds

Diagnosis of obesity is made on the basis of being greater or equal to 95th centile of the Body Mass Index.     BMI = weight in Kg/height in metres2.

Health Consequences

These are both short term and long term.

Short term includes psychological, cardiovascular and other associated conditions such as asthma and type 2 diabetes.

The psychological factors are greater in girls and commoner in older age groups and adolescents.  The cardiovascular risks are associated with other known risk factors.  Many studies show that the process starts early.  This is confirmed by post mortem studies.

Long term consequences are that obesity tends to persist.  70% of obese children stay obese and 85% of obese adults stay obese.

There are also socio-economic consequences – there are adverse effects in later adult life on income, social isolation, marriage and educational achievement.  The childhood obesity epidemic is likely to herald an increased burden of heart disease in the future.

Intervention and Treatment

An audit of an intervention carried out by the Royal Sick Children’s Hospital in Edinburgh showed that intervention was generally a failure.  257 children were in the study.  21% lost weight, 1% maintained weight, 56% gained weight, 21% were seen only once and 52% did not complete the course.

There is a body of evidence that shows that interventions are generally ineffective.  Complex interventions which tackle multiple tasks such as traffic light diets, reduction in inactivity (e.g. Less T.V.) and increased lifestyle activity, are regarded as the best bets.

There are two randomised controlled trials currently taking place in Scotland.  One is targeting diet (traffic lights) plus inactivity in 6 – 10 year olds and the other is targeting activity and inactivity amongst nursery based 3 – 4 year olds.  Hopefully much useful data will come from these.

The meeting attracted a large audience from medical, educational and community based disciplines.