Obese children suffer more beyond our expectations

Contrary to a majority assumption, overweight kids suffer more health issues when they are young, according to Takepart.com. The findings are made in a new study by Neal Halfon, MD, MPH, director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities, in Los Angeles. The study, published in Academic Pediatrics, covered over 43,000 kids aged 10-17, and also asked parents about their children’s health conditions. It found that apart from common health problems, the overweight children also experience ear infections and problems with bones, joints, and muscles. “Kids who are obese have nearly twice the risk of having three physical, mental, or developmental problems compared to normal-weight children. Overweight kids had a 1.3 times higher risk.” said Dr. Halfon and his co-authors. Besides, the study also suggested that 11 percent of obese kids experience some sort of restriction on how active they could be—like going to school or playing with other kids. “Obese children are limited in what they can do,” Dr. Halfon said. “This is a measure of disability or impairment due to obesity. It’s the same kind of measure that would be used to determine if a child with heart disease or cerebral palsy was impaired in some way.”