The treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity
The continued high prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity emphasizes the need for both clinical and community-based approaches to prevention and treatment. This chapter highlights evidence-based and emerging treatment for child obesity, based on a new understanding of obesity as a biological condition rather than a personal lifestyle decision, and includes treatment descriptions for comprehensive, intensive lifestyle supports, dietary interventions, pharmacotherapy, and weight loss surgery. Nutrition and activity counseling in primary care is necessary but not sufficient to achieve a reduction in adiposity among children and adolescents. Comprehensive, multidisciplinary obesity treatment is the foundational approach to achieve body mass reduction or the attenuation of excessive weight gain in children. Successful body mass index (BMI) reduction is more common in adolescents, and the magnitude of BMI reduction is similar to behavioral interventions. Successful modification of diets, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors will require public health approaches that complement clinical interventions.
