The World Health Organization published the first guidelines to deal with the significant increase in obesity among children and teenagers.

The World Health Organization published the first guidelines to deal with the significant increase in obesity among children and teenagers.

In these guidelines, recommendations were given to health systems and health workers to provide timely, evidence-based and people-oriented care.

According to this organization, in 2024, 170 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 were living with obesity, of which 70 million were 5 to 9 years old. The prevalence of obesity in this age group has quadrupled since 1990, rising from two percent to eight percent.

According to this recommendation, drug treatment (slimming drugs), surgery (such as gastric bypass surgery) or slimming devices are not recommended for children under 9 years of age; For 10- to 19-year-olds, approved drug therapy should be considered only when a multifaceted program of supervised lifestyle modification has failed. Bariatric surgery should be strongly considered for morbidly obese adolescents.

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