Implications of lifestyle changes on the incidence of childhood obesity – a systematic review and meta-analysis

Y. Abud Alanazi

Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Majmaah University, Majmaah, Saudi Arabia. y.alanazi@mu.edu.sa

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• Obesity
• Pediatrics

OBJECTIVE: Childhood obesity, which is currently at epidemic levels, is the most prevalent chronic condition affecting young people’s health worldwide. Along with the rise in juvenile obesity, illnesses like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and fatty liver disease have become more prevalent in kids. Hence, through this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to determine the lifestyle changes that would have the most impact on the incidence of childhood obesity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The databases of PubMed-MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Scopus were searched using keywords, such as “BMI”, “childhood obesity”, “lifestyle changes” and “nutritional intervention” and 482 documents were found overall after a thorough search of the online journals; 169 of them were first chosen. Only 58 original papers were left after 111 articles that were duplicates or exact copies of one another were eliminated.

RESULTS: 12 studies were ultimately picked because they met the necessary inclusion and exclusion requirements. Reducing overall caloric intake and dietary factors specific to the child’s parents were two of the most frequent impact factors on obesity levels, closely followed by physical activity levels and a sedentary lifestyle. The dietary intervention had the most positive results in modifying obesity-related dietary risk factors for obese children and adolescents in the majority of the studies.

CONCLUSIONS: An overall balanced diet, parental awareness pertaining to BMI and physical activity in children were the three major factors influencing a child’s obesity levels. However, more studies are needed in this regard so as to ascertain a complete, holistic treatment plan that can further validate the implementation of our findings.

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