The Commission to End Childhood Obesity was established with the objective of preparing a report on transversal and multidisciplinary recommendations for fight against the growing scourge of overweight in minors.
This work is not a statistical study but rather pedagogical material to encourage students WHO Member States to act and implement public policies to tackle the problem.
The experts who prepared the report are based on incomplete data on which Figures from most European and Latin American countries are not included.as specified by sources who have prepared the text.
Global data is still being compiled and will be released by the WHO later in the year, figures that will also include numbers on children over five and adolescents.
For now, the data available to the WHO show that the prevalence of Overweight in children under 5 years of age has increased between 1990 and 2014 from 4.8% to 6.1%.
What in absolute numbers implies an increase from 31 million 26 years ago to 41 million.
The number of overweight children in low- and middle-income countries has more than doubled in the same period: from 7.5 million to 15.5 million.
“Overweight is a potential nightmare in the developing world”Peter Gluckman, co-chairman of the commission, said at a press conference.
According to the data available to the WHO, In 2014, 48% of all overweight and obese children lived in Asia, and 25% in Africa. The number of African children under five years of age in Africa has also doubled since 1990: from 5.4 million to 10.3 million. “The region where the problem is most alarming because of how quickly it is growing is Asia,” Gluckman warned.
With respect to Latin America, it is estimated that the prevalence of overweight in the region is 8% of children under five years of age. Glaukman pointed out that Latin American leaders are very aware of the problem and are responding seriously, and noted that many countries are steering their policies in the right direction.
“It must be taken into account that obesity impacts the child’s quality of life, it affects their physical and psychological state, their ability to study, relate, It will put many barriers in your life so you have to urgently deal with the matter.”, stated, in turn, Sania Sishtar, the co-chair of the commission.
(With information from EFE)
