Childhood Obesity: Role of Local Environment

Obesity is drastically increasing all over the world. Over the past three decades Obesity-related diseases are become major health concerns in Iranian men and women. Research findings indicated that Obesity is highly prevalent across all age group and socioeconomic levels in urban areas in Iran.Meanwhile Obesity among children and adolescents is increasing in alarming rate. Childhood obesity is associated to both early and late health problems. It has been reported that obesity related complications is particularly increased in children who have an obese parent.It is known that it would be more difficult to reduce excessive weight in adolescence and adults once it become established. Therefore, may be more helpful to start obesity prevention and management during early childhood. In terms of public health, tackling this obesity epidemic especially among school-age children is an important issue and needs to be considered by health policy makers to establish preventive strategies. It is also needed that obesity researches shift to preform solution oriented researches rather than descriptive study of obesity.On the other hand, Obesity intervention focused on individual behavior change usually led to only short-term success if any. The main reason for not being able to maintain reduced weight is an environment that promote overeating. The obesogenic environment is the sum of all the influences imposed by the surrounding on weight gain. These include factors that artificially stimulate people to eat and possible limitation imposed by the environment to reduce physical activity. In clinical practice dietitians should focus on identifying these environmental factors in people local environment. Regarding childhood obesity, this local obesogenic environment is defined based on locations including home, school and neighborhood. In clinical management of obesity detailed data on environmental factors and cues that might influence eating behavior should be collected of any obese individual including children. Identifying and Modifying this obesogenic environment could produce a long-term success in weight control both in children and adults.