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Management of childhood obesity: a challenging but also a fascinating issue

International Journal of Obesity volume 33, pages S57–S59 (2009)Cite this article

Childhood obesity was selected as one of the themes of the 2007 Symposium of the Merck-Frosst/CIHR Research Chair in Obesity at Université Laval that was held in Quebec City. After this symposium, the speakers were invited to submit a brief paper summarizing their presentation and related relevant literature. As a chair of one of the symposium's sessions, I was invited to provide a conceptual integration of the speakers' messages and to draw a perspective regarding the management of childhood obesity. This paper describes this integration as well as some interpretations of findings reported in this symposium.

This issue was documented by Dr Stephen Daniels, who carefully described the relationship between obesity and the risk of increased morbidity and mortality. The arguments presented by Dr Daniels included an emphasis on the fact that obesity can amplify the severity of a pathological condition.1 Indeed, by referring to his own clinical experience,2 he showed that ‘among children and adolescents with hypertension, increased BMI is associated with more severe increase in left ventricular mass index,’ which may ultimately predict a large increase in the risk of cardiovascular end points in adulthood.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Kinesiology, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada

    A Tremblay

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  1. A Tremblay
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Correspondence to A Tremblay.

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Tremblay, A. Management of childhood obesity: a challenging but also a fascinating issue. Int J Obes 33 (Suppl 1), S57–S59 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2009.19

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