In the United States, the number of children with obesity quadrupled between 1990 and 2022, according to new research. Obesity among children has been increasing worldwide for years.
Scientists saw a 253 percent increase in the number of American children with severe obesity. Especially among young people between sixteen and eighteen years old, there is a jump in the number of diagnoses, according to a large study among 25,847 American children.
The health risks of severe obesity at a young age are enormous, the researchers emphasize. They saw greatly increased risks of metabolic diseases, strokes, and liver diseases in children with obesity.
Childhood obesity differs from obesity in adults, explains pediatrician Saskia Bouma. She specializes in obesity in children. “In adults, there are clear threshold values, but in children, these differ by gender and age.” Currently, there are three grades of childhood obesity, with the third group involving very severe obesity.
But according to the American researchers, a fourth and fifth class are now also necessary. These extreme categories are needed to estimate the very serious health risks.
What is childhood obesity?
Childhood obesity is being overweight in children that carries serious health risks. Childhood obesity is subdivided into three classes.
In that, class 1 (obesity) roughly corresponds to an adult body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 30. Class 2 (severe obesity) resembles the group of adults with a BMI of 30 to 35, and class 3 (very severe obesity) is comparable to adults with a BMI above 35. For comparison: for adults, a healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 25. For children, this differs by age and gender.
Much more diabetes type 2
The research also shows that all children in these classes, i.e. with a BMI higher than 40 or 50, are insulin resistant. That means that the body no longer reacts well to insulin, leaving too much sugar in the blood. These children have a high risk of, among other things, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Also in the Netherlands, Bouma sees children with BMIs of over 40. “We are seeing more and more teenagers with type 2 diabetes, while that is a disease of old age.”
The consequences of obesity for children are therefore very great. Especially in the long term, according to Bouma, they are very clear: in adulthood, many people with obesity have diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer.
The development is not limited to the US. Worldwide, the number of children with severe obesity is increasing, according to earlier research by The Lancet.