Childhood and Adolescence Obesity:

Promoting a Fit and Active Future

Audience

Parents of children and adolescents ages 2-16

Children may be less receptive to the announcement than their parents would be. The initiative

to take action within their families would be stronger in the parents than it would in their kids

Major FactorsObesity Symptoms:

Breathlessness

Snoring

Feeling tired every day

Back and joint pain

Low confidence/feeling isolated

Increased sweating

Obesity Consequences:

● Diabetes

● Heart Disease

● Asthma

● High blood pressure & high cholesterol

● Sleep apnea

● Anxiety/depression

● Social issues (bullying & stigma)

How to Effectively Change

For parents: Promote healthy eating habits within the family. Ween your children away from fast food and other unhealthy dietary choices. Educate your children on the importance of a healthy diet, and what foods to avoid or reduce their intake of.

Get your children involved in extracurricular athletics or physical activities such as school sports or routine workouts at the gym. Limit the time children spend behind screens, which takes away from time that could be spent on physical activity.

Children and adolescents should partake in 60 minutes or more of physical activity per day.

Next Steps

Possible interventions

Minimize cross cultural, SES, gender, age, etc. disparities

- Utilize programs like CHIP

Look to CDC’s Early Care and Education (ECE)

- Obesity prevention framework

- Has a direct impact on what children consume, how involved they are in physical activity

- Supports early education facilities to try and reach standards and teach best ways to prevent childhood and adolescent obesity

Prevent fast food chains from targeting children. Remove children’s menus

“prevention efforts must target our youngest children” * **

References

1. Obesity symptoms. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2017, from https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/obesity-symptoms

2. Childhood Obesity Causes & Consequences. (2016, December 15). Retrieved February 21, 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/causes.html

3. 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Summary https://health.gov/paguidelines/guidelines/summary.aspx

*Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM. Prevalence of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 2011–2012. JAMA. 2014;311(8):806-814.

**Cunningham SA, Kramer MR, Narayan KM. Incidence of Childhood Obesity in the United States, N Engl J Med 2014;370(5) 403-411.