Literature review on childhood obesity

Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition which affects children and adolescents. A child is classified as “obese” if their body mass index is at or above 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex. According to (Department of Health, 2011), by the year 2025, 37% of males and 33% of females will be overweight and/ or obese for children aged 5-19 years in Victoria. If such a trend continues, an extra 6.7million Australian would be overweight and/or obese by the year 2025 compared to 2005. The combined effect of increasing body mass index and decreasing case-fatality related to cardiovascular causes shown in the Australian Burden of Disease Study 2003 was a considerable increase in the incidence of type 2 diabetes and an even greater rise in future prevalence. This will result in a huge increase in disease burden due to diabetes, chiefly as a consequence of the obesity epidemic. If the current trend continues und trends continue undiminished, diabetes will account for around 9% of total burden in 2023, which will be an increase of 4% from 2003.Type 2 diabetes is likely to rise from second to first place by 2023 in terms of specific causes of disease burden. The rise in prevalence and incidence of diabetes, along with other contributing factors such as population growth, ageing, excess health price inflation and increases in number of health services, will all lead to an enormous rise in predicated health expenditure for diabetes in Australia. The health expenditure for diabetes for the period from 2002-2003 to 2032-2033 has been projected to increase by 401% which will be $1.4billion to $7billion in monetary terms. This is largely due to an anticipated growth in the prevalence of obesity.
According to World Health Organisation, childhood obesity has been identified to be one the most serious public health issues of the 21st century. The issue is global and is steadily affecting many low- and middle-income countries, especially in urban settings.