New Delhi: A child living with severe obesity at age four and doesn’t lose weight may have a life expectancy of just 39 — about half of the average life expectancy, finds a study on Wednesday (May 14). This “profound effect” of obesity, however, could be curbed by losing weight, the study showed. The study, presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Venice, Italy, for the first time, quantified the impact of age of onset, severity, and duration of childhood obesity.
Watch: Dos and Don’ts For Preventing Childhood Obesity
Dr Urs Wiedemann of Stradoo GmbH, a life sciences consultancy in Munich, Germany, said,
The early onset obesity model shows that weight reduction has a striking effect on life expectancy and comorbidity risk, especially when weight is lost early in life.
Dr Wiedemann said,
It is clear that childhood obesity should be considered a life-threatening disease. It is vital that treatment isn’t put off until the development of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or other ‘warning signs’ but starts early.
For the study, the researchers created an early-onset obesity model based on data from 50 existing clinical studies on obesity and obesity-related comorbidities, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular events, and fatty liver.
The studies included more than 10 million participants from countries around the world, approximately 2.7 million of whom were aged between 2 and 29 years.
The results also showed that a 4-year-old child with a body mass index of 3.5 (which indicates severe obesity) and who doesn’t go on to lose weight has a 27 per cent risk of developing diabetes by the age of 25 and a 45 per cent risk by the age of 35.
Watch: How Parents Can Help Their Children Beat Obesity
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
