2007 Expert Committee Recommendations About the Treatment of Pediatric Obesity

© Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. February 2009 Obesity Management 1 Epidemiologic analyses leave no doubt that we have witnessed a global epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity over the past three decades. In the United States, prevalence rates of overweight and obesity have tripled for children aged 6–19 (from approximately 10% to 34%) and projections suggest that by 2015, just 6 years from the date of this publication, that rate could quintuple—getting frighteningly close to 50%.1 Obesityassociated hospital costs (adjusted for inflation) more than tripled over just two of the prior decades (1979–1999),2 with far greater healthcare costs likely to emerge over the ensuing decades. The human costs, measured in terms of