THE PREVALENCE OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY WORLDWIDE

Background: Childhood obesity is an established worldwide health problem. Globally, 10% of school-aged children assessed to suffer from childhood obesity. Objectives: To quantify the worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity among children. Methods: All previous articles collected from different resources like library, internet sources as Pub med, WHO, Medline, Cochrane library. Conclusion: Prevalence of childhood obesity increases due to bad dietary habits, decrease physical activity, and to less extent genetic or as a manifestation of other morbid conditions. Childhood obesity has many psychosocial and medical health outcomes. Screening and effective health awareness programs are preliminary steps for its prevention. Reduced caloric intake and increased caloric expenditure through, lifestyle modifications and regular physical activity have an integral and interactive role to handle childhood obesity.