Leading scientists meet to discuss childhood obesity in Europe

 

With up to one in five children suffering from excess body weight, childhood overweight and obesity are a pressing matter on the European public health agenda. What are the causes, and which strategies could work to mitigate this trend? On 8-9 November, scientists involved in the EU-funded project IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of lifestyle- and Diet-induced health EFfects In Children and infantS) met with other international experts to discuss the next steps towards answering these questions.

 

Venue: "Paraninfo" building at the Medicine faculty of the Univesity of Zaragoza

Sleep deprivation linked to child overweight “One of the main findings we see so far is that there is a strong association between sleep duration and the risk of becoming overweight and obese. Children sleeping less have a higher risk,” explained Professor Wolfgang Ahrens from the Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine (BIPS), who is coordinating the IDEFICS Study. Understanding what causes childhood obesity and how the different risk factors interact will allow scientists to develop measures to prevent overweight and the diseases associated with it in children.

 

Parents’ education and household income are important risk factors

Getting parents involved is also essential as diet-related diseases are not only linked to genetic but also very much to behavioural factors. Research by the consortium revealed that the parents’ education as well as the household income impact on both the children’s diet quality and body weight. “By getting more insight into the mechanisms that work within families we may better understand how to target our intervention measures in the future,” commented Professor Ahrens.

 

Building the right environment One of the six key messages of the IDEFICS Study is to encourage children to be more physically active. “We have a component in our study where we assess the built environment and how it impacts on the physical activity of the children,” said Professor Ahrens. The term ‘built environment’ describes the man-made surroundings in which we live. Creating environments that invite physical activity is considered an important means to encourage healthier lifestyles and tackle the obesity epidemic. “Our aim is to activate the political actors to bring them together so they make environmental changes in favour of a better health for their children,” finished Ahrens.

Left to right: Prof. W. Ahrens, project coordinator; Prof. I. Pigeot, project deputy director; Dr. A. Siani, chair of project area 'Aetiology'

 

Prof. L Moreno Aznar, project principal investigator at University of Zaragoza

Currently in its fifth and final year, the IDEFICS Study has accomplished a huge cross-sectional baseline survey in over 16,000 children aged 2-9 years from eight European countries. This was followed by a targeted intervention and a follow-up survey to assess the impact of dietary and lifestyle changes on body weight and other health parameters. Specifically for this project, IDEFICS researchers have developed standardised data collecting methods for identifying dietary, lifestyle, psychosocial, biochemical and genetic factors for overweight, obesity, metabolic syndrome and impaired bone health in children. Such validated standards are of great value for future research and monitoring as they would allow data comparability across different contexts. Evaluation of the follow-up survey will show whether the IDEFICS intervention was effective, in which countries it was effective and what the main factors were that contributed to a possible intervention effect. Concludes Professor Ahrens, “hopefully from that basis we will be able to develop guidelines and recommendations in the future, but this is ongoing research.”

The results presented at the symposium will be published in a supplement to the International Journal of Obesity.

 

Download this Text also in German and Spanish here (PDF file). Dowload the original announcement here (PDF file). Download the original workshop information here (PDF file).