The interaction between nutrition and health has been reduced to a single nutrient strategy, showing a reductionist approach. Diet quality involves nutrients, other compounds such as phytochemicals and the combined effect of their biological activity. The use of dietary patterns (DPs) may better explain the risk of noncommunicable diseases than specific nutrients or foods. Also, the use of diet quality indices implies the quantification of the overall healthfulness of a dietary pattern (DP) based on its components. In children and adolescents, knowledge about the association between diet quality and several diseases is limited. Also, the use of multiple methods to obtain DP increases the complexity of identifying them. In this sense, a proposal of core food patterns could help and enhance the possibility of overspreading dietary guidelines over countries, taking into consideration each country’s specific and cultural characteristics.

Obesity is associated since childhood with processes and diseases that affect most of the organs and systems of the human body, known as comorbidities. Cardiovascular diseases and atherosclerosis, such as dyslipidaemia, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes, are at high risk of development later in life. Other comorbidities that may occur are neurological (intracranial hypertension), gastrointestinal and hepatic (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease), genitourinary (polycystic ovary syndrome), musculoskeletal, respiratory (obstructive sleep apnea or asthma), immunological, ophthalmological, or dermatological disorders. The importance of the psychological and psychiatric pathology that often accompanies obesity should be highlighted as depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, or social isolation. Therefore, it is very important to prevent the development of risk factors as far as possible and comorbidities to limit the adverse effect on health.

The escalating occurrence of childhood and adolescent obesity on a global scale is a significant issue of apprehension. Individuals developing obesity during childhood are prone to carry this condition into adulthood, and childhood obesity entails a diverse array of severe health complications, such as heightened cardiovascular risk, imbalances in sex hormones, hepatic and orthopedic issues, and psychosocial comorbidities. In this comprehensive chapter, we outline the existing knowledge of the etiology of childhood obesity in relation to the genetic and epigenetic factors that influence the development of the condition, and we assess the potential role of the gut microbiota in the disease and its underlying factors contributing to obesity in children and adolescents. We also provide an overview of the current approaches employed in the management of this condition.

This paper provides a detailed and structured overview of the multifaceted approach being taken worldwide to address the childhood obesity epidemic. It highlights the complexity of the issue, the varied strategies being employed, and the importance of continued efforts and collaboration to effectively tackle this global health challenge. Childhood obesity is a global epidemic with serious health and economic repercussions for countries worldwide. The proportion of children and adolescents living with overweight and obesity has nearly doubled over 10 years. This has led to a concerted effort by policymakers on a global scale to implement action plans and strategies on an international, national, and sub-national level to combat this global epidemic. Childhood obesity surveillance carried out via the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) is indispensable for showcasing intercountry variability and also the progress or regress in addressing childhood obesity over time, while also highlighting the higher impact in vulnerable groups. The complex etiology of childhood obesity requires multisectoral actions with a whole-of-society approach that tackles the contribution of not just nutrition and physical activity but also other social and economic determinants of health. The WHO Report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, along with other international reports, proposes priority actions for countries to focus on. These priority actions are designed to develop health-enabling environments that benefit children right from the preconception stage, throughout pregnancy and early infancy, during their time spent at school and in leisure activities, and within their community. These reports acknowledge the need for a strengthened role of primary care in managing and treatment of children living with overweight and obesity and emphasizes the importance of reaching out to vulnerable and marginalized populations as means to attaining universal health coverage and ensure quality care for people living with obesity. This report presents a picture of the various action plans and strategies implemented in different countries of the WHO European Region and provides a summary of the implementation status of the policies and interventions aimed at ending childhood obesity. Despite the progress made so far, challenges remain for countries to achieve the international targets set by the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Effective actions are needed to address not just the barriers to healthy behaviors but also to understand and address the role of stigma, mental health, and shortcomings in the context of health systems.

Childhood obesity is a disease with multifactorial causes and consequences; therefore, childhood obesity needs multidisciplinary assessment and treatment. This chapter outlines the basic concepts for a multidisciplinary team for treating childhood obesity and gives a practical example in the SOFT (Standard Obesity Family Therapy)-model. SOFT is a multidisciplinary treatment validated in an RCT and used in clinical practice at the Childhood Obesity Unit at Skåne University Hospital in Malmö since 2002.

In recent decades, the prevalence of obesity in children has increased dramatically. Children with excessive body weight are more likely to become adults with obesity and have an increased risk of developing noncommunicable diseases later in life. Due to these trends, global health targets have shifted the focus on nutrition surveillance from undernutrition to all forms of malnutrition, including overweight and obesity. There is global support for halting the rise in childhood obesity. The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) have endorsed a target of halting the rise in childhood obesity by 2025.

This chapter reviews the evidence on preventing obesity and overweight from the earliest stages of life. Early factors such as maternal antenatal obesity, high gestational weight gain, and gestational diabetes during pregnancy are linked to offspring obesity. While dietary interventions during gestation have been shown to affect cardiovascular fetal programming through different mechanisms, evidence on the effects of physical activity is still limited. Besides, rapid early growth is the most strongly determining factor for early obesity development, but the mechanisms for later obesity development are yet to be explored. Finally, although breastfeeding should be the first key strategy for public health due to its multiple benefits for both the baby and mother, evidence on preventing future overweight or obesity is unclear due to interrelated factors.

Childhood obesity is one of the major health problems of childhood and has increased dramatically in recent decades. Although obesity is a complex disease due to its multifactorial nature, some environmental factors can positively and negatively influence childhood obesity and its associated health problems. Physical inactivity, sedentary behavior and some sleep problems are important contributors to the increase in childhood obesity. Changes in children's lifestyles, such as sedentary leisure time activities, use of transport and television viewing, have increased the negative impact of physical inactivity, sedentary behaviors and sleep problems on childhood obesity. Conversely, establishing positive approaches to these lifestyle parameters can help prevent and treat overweight and obesity.

According to the World Health Organization, obesity is defined as an excess of body fat. However, the concept of obesity has health implications beyond the simple accumulation of body fat, as adiposity is linked to both short- and long-term adverse metabolic complications. Additionally, it is associated with significant physical and psychosocial comorbidities, all of which need to be encompassed within the broader understanding of obesity. To effectively address obesity and its consequences, including definitions, diagnosis, quantification, monitoring and classification, it is essential to establish objective and standardized parameters for measuring body fat.

Obesity is a multifactorial disease that is mainly characterized by excessive accumulation of body fat. This excess also is presented with numerous complications and comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and thus a decrease in quality of life. In the medium and long term, it is also responsible for increased mortality. Rates of overweight and obesity continue to grow in children and adults. This chapter will first describe the frequency with which obesity occurs, and the main and news prevention strategies will be reviewed. In the late 20th century, there was a higher importance to the environment as one of the determining for human health due to the hemogenic medical model to treat chronic nontransmissible diseases which showed little effectiveness. To explain the causes of obesity, the term “obesogenic environment” was coined, as a dynamic configuration of biological effects that interact within the social historical and ecological context of the person. Parents, cultural environment, and school can may influence on children's behaviors, which are closely related to the risk of childhood obesity. An early treatment and prevention strategies are key issues. New technologies could be integrated into childhood obesity prevention strategies due to their presence in society and transform their use as an alliance for the future health.