Obesity is a chronic recurrent disease related to excessive fat tissue accumulation that presents a risk to health. The diagnosis of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity is usually based on the measurement of high and weight, calculation of weight-to-length ratio in children below the age of 5 years and body mass index (BMI) in older children.
1. Introduction
Pediatric obesity is not a single nation problem, but it is one of the most important problems of public health [1,2][1][2]. Although healthy eating patterns and regular physical activity (PA) help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight starting at an early age and continuing throughout life, every nation has unique cultural, economical, and health-care system conditions that make difficult to implement some detailed universal guidelines. Therefore, there is a need to publish local guidelines that will be in concordance with international, universal recommendations. This is the first position statement of the Polish Society of Pediatrics, Polish Society for Pediatric Obesity, Polish Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, and Polish Association for the Study on Obesity. The Expert Panel’s goal was to develop comprehensive evidence-based guidelines addressing to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of obesity and its complications in children and adolescents.
2. Obesity—Definition
Obesity is a chronic recurrent disease related to excessive fat tissue accumulation that presents a risk to health. The diagnosis of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity is usually based on the measurement of high and weight, calculation of weight-to-length ratio in children below the age of 5 years and body mass index (BMI) in older children
[3,4,5][3][4][5]. Indexes are assessed using child growth standards for age and sex. The advantages of these indexes are simplicity, low cost, universality of measurement, and assessment. However, it should be noted that they are not perfect in assessing the amount and distribution of fat tissue accumulation causing the development of obesity complications. In addition, they should be used with caution in a particular situation, for example, in athletes with high muscle mass or children with significant posture defects (scoliosis) related to the decrease of height measurement.
3. Diagnostic Tools and Data Interpretation
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in children under the age of 5 years, overweight should be diagnosed if the weight-to-length ratio is greater than 2SD above the median of the child growth standard and obesity when this ratio is greater than 3SD above the median
[3,5][3][5]. In children aged 3–18 years, Polish BMI percentile charts should be used, where overweight is defined as BMI above the 85th percentile (>1SD) and obesity above the 97th percentile (>2SD)
[6]. WHO standards for children aged 5–19 years can be also used, with the overweight and obesity definition in accordance with Polish charts
[7,8][7][8]. It is also possible to use older BMI percentiles charts for Polish children, published in 1999 by Palczewska and Niedzwiecka
[9], where overweight is defined as BMI above the 90th percentile and obesity above the 97th percentile. However, using them,
wresearche
rs risk underestimation of the prevalence of overweight compared to WHO charts.
Due to the high risk of metabolic and cardiovascular complications development, severe obesity should be specified. There are few definitions of severe obesity in children.
WResearche
rs propose to use ONE, where severe obesity is diagnosed in children older than 5 years if BMI exceeds 3SD (99.9th centile)
[5].
The accumulation of visceral fat tissue, which is an index of abdominal obesity related to a metabolic complication that can be used in children, is waist circumference
[8]. It is measured at the level of the midpoint between the lowest rib and the iliac crest. For Polish children, centile charts for waist circumference for age and sex were developed within the OLA/OLAF project
[10]. Up to the age of 16 years, waist circumference exceeding 90 percentile for age and sex defines abdominal obesity and is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk. In older adolescents, adult cut-off point values for abdominal obesity should be used (94 cm for men and 80 cm for females).
4. Treatment of Obesity
4.1. Weight Goal Reduction
Weight loss goals are determined by the age of the child and the severity of obesity and related comorbidities.
It has been suggested that in younger children with obesity the goal of treatment should be the stabilization of the body weight with successive BMI reduction. Maintenance of a stable weight for more than 1 year might be an appropriate goal for those children with overweight and mild obesity, because BMI will decrease as children gain height. In older children, weight loss is recommended to obtain the 85th percentile BMI. A weight loss of up to 1–2 kg/month is safe. Rapid weight loss is not recommended because of possible adverse effects on growth
[65][11]. Bioelectrical impedance (BIA) is a useful method to assess the change in body composition in children
[126,127][12][13].
4.2. Effectiveness of Nutritional Interventions
A stepwise approach to weight control in children is recommended, taking into account the child’s age, the severity of obesity, and the presence of obesity-related comorbidities
[128,129][14][15]. Treatment of childhood obesity involves adherence to a structured weight reduction program individualized for each child, along with the adoption of a healthy diet and lifestyle. Anti-obesity medications play a limited role in childhood and are not recommended in younger children. Bariatric surgery is reserved for morbidly obese older adolescents, but its long-term safety data are limited in this age group
[130][16]. The combination of increased PA and improved nutrition has shown promise as an intervention to combat obesity in children and adolescents
[131][17].
4.3. Eating Behaviors and Lifestyle Modifications
Obesity prevention and treatment should be a focus on diet, eating behaviors, and PA, and the reduction of body fat mass should be the summary effect of all this change.
Efforts should be made to permanently change the lifestyle of the whole family
[132,133][18][19]. Nutritional behaviors such as avoiding breakfast, irregular eating, snacking between meals, insufficient eating vegetables, and fruits are proven predictors of obesity development as well as sedentary lifestyle
[134,135,136,137][20][21][22][23]. Special attention should be paid to them in patient education. The diet and other lifestyle modifications recommended for the treatment of obesity are summarized in
Table 31.
Table 31.
Dietary and other lifestyle modifications.
4.4. Methods of Treatment by Dietary Modification
Dietary modifications are essential in the treatment of obesity, but there is a lack of one validated dietary strategy for weight loss in children. Various dietary modifications are used in scientific research for weight loss in children with obesity. As shown by these studies, diets with modified carbohydrate intake, such as low glycemic index and low carbohydrate diets, have been as effective as diets with standard macronutrients proportional to portion size control
[138,139][24][25].
A well-balanced hypocaloric diet should be initiated among all obese children in consultation with a dietician
[140][26]. The total daily energy of the diet should be calculated related to the ideal body weight for the height of the child and macronutrients proportion should fulfill the National Recommended Nutrient Intake Levels for Healthy Children (
Table 42)
[128][14]. The appropriate caloric restriction should be determined by a dietitian. The daily caloric value of the diet established to the ideal body weight for the height of the child may be reduced by 200–500 kcal. However, it should be noted that little to no evidence supports these specific recommendations. Rather, they represent an expert opinion. The reduced caloric intake should not be lower than 1000 kcal/day. For children with metabolic complications of obesity, especially insulin resistance and/or diabetes, more macronutrient modifications are needed.
Table 42.
Share of macronutrients in meal plan.