Over nutrition in children and adolescents

Abstract

Eclipsing infectious diseases and under-nutrition as a significant contributor to mortality and morbidity over the past two decades, overweight and obesity is increasingly emerging as the most prevalent global nutritional problem both in low middle and middle income countries (LMICs) and high income countries (HICs). Globally, in 2016, an estimated 1.9 billion (39%) adults were overweight, of whom 650 (13%) million were obese. In 1975, under 1% of children and adolescents aged 5 - 19 years were obese, while in 2016 more than 124 million children were obese. Furthermore, between 1975 and 2016, the global obesity prevalence across all age groups has almost tripled. This highlights the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 2 that focuses on improving nutrition, health and ending malnutrition in children and adults.