REVIEW

Health consequences of obesity

J J Reilly¹, E Methven², Z C McDowell¹, B Hacking³, D Alexander⁴, L Stewart⁵, C J H Kelnar⁶

¹ University of Glasgow Division of Developmental Medicine, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, Glasgow G3 8SJ
² The Cander Centre, 17 King Street, Stonehouse, Lanarkshire ML9 3EQ
³ Department of Oncology, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
⁴ Nethertown Surgery, Elliot Street, Dunfermline KY11 4TF
⁵ Department of Dietetics, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, 20 Sylvan Place, Edinburgh EH9 1UW
⁶ Section of Child Life & Health, Department of Reproductive and Developmental Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, 20 Sylvan Place, Edinburgh EH9 1UW

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr J Reilly, Univesity of Glasgow Division of Developmental Medicine, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill, Glasgow G3 8SJ, UK;
jjr2y{at}clinmed.gla.ac.uk

The recent epidemic of childhood obesity¹ has raised concern because of the possible clinical and public health consequences.^2,3 However, there remains a widespread perception among health professionals that childhood obesity is a largely cosmetic problem, with minor clinical effects. No systematic review has yet focused on the diverse array of possible consequences of childhood obesity, though older non-systematic reviews are available.^4,5 In addition, no review to date has considered the vast body of evidence on the health impact of childhood obesity which has been published recently. The aim of the present review was therefore to provide a critically appraised, evidence based, summary of the consequences of childhood obesity in the short term (for the child) and longer term (in adulthood).

Keywords: obesity; health; systematic review; evidence appraisal

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Arch. Dis. Child. 2003 88: 745. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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