Consensus Statement: Childhood Obesity for Pediatric Gastroenterologists.

Huang JS, Barlow SE, Quiros-Tejeira RE, Scheimann A, Skelton J, Suskind D, Tsai P, Uko V, Warolin JP, Xanthakos SA; The NASPGHAN Obesity Task Force.

Source

*University of California, San Diego and Rady Children's Hospital †Baylor College of Medicine ‡University of Nebraska and Children's Hospital & Medical Center §Johns Hopkins School of Medicine ||Wake Forest School of Medicine ¶University of Washington #University of California, San Francisco **Cleveland Clinic ††Vanderbilt School of Medicine ‡‡Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Abstract

Obesity in childhood is one of the major health issues in pediatric health care today. As expected, the prevalence of obesity-related comorbidities has risen in parallel with that of obesity. Consultation regarding these concomitant diseases and subsequent management by subspecialists, including pediatric gastroenterologists, is now common and has resulted in obesity being recognized as a chronic disease requiring coordination of care. While medications and even surgery may provide effective although often temporary treatments for obesity and its comorbidities, behavioral interventions addressing healthy dietary and physical activity habits remain a mainstay in the obesity treatment paradigm. Therefore, the issue of weight management must be addressed by both general practitioner and subspecialist alike. In this report, we review select aspects of pediatric obesity and obesity-related management issues as it relates in particular to the field of pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology.

TimAllenMDJD

Tuesday, August 21, 2012