In January, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued its new clinical practice guideline for the evaluation and treatment of overweight and obese children and adolescents.
The health of an estimated 14.4 million U.S. children and adolescents is affected by obesity and the trend is escalating. In 1963, five percent of children and adolescents were obese—by 2018 that number had jumped to 19 percent.
“A predictive epidemiologic model estimates that if 2017 obesity trends hold, 57 percent of children aged two to 19 years will have obesity by the time they are 35 years of age, in 2050,” writes the AAP in the new guidelines.
Obesity “puts children and adolescents at risk for serious short- and long-term adverse health outcomes later in life, including cardiovascular disease, including HTN [Hypertension]; dyslipidemia [abnormally elevated cholesterol or fats in the blood]; insulin resistance; T2DM [Type 2 diabetes mellitus]; and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” writes the AAP….