Pediatric Obesity

Children living in the Midwest region of the U.S. have a higher BMI z score compared with those living in the Northeast, whereas children from the South and West have lower BMI z scores than the Northeast, according to study data.

Children with a high BMI who participated in a high-intensity lifestyle intervention program in New Zealand had a lower BMI standard deviation score after 1 year, but the reduction was not sustained at 5 years, according to study data.

Having a higher childhood BMI may be protective against both premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer, according to data presented at the European Congress on Obesity annual meeting.

Teenage boys with obesity gained more than 8 pounds on average vs. about 2.6 pounds for girls, during Italy’s first COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020, primarily due to spending more time video gaming, according to study data.

Girls with higher total body fat are more likely to have menarche at a younger age and have slower breast development compared with those with normal total body fat, according to study data.

Fecal microbiome transfer led to a mean reduction in android-to-gynoid fat ratio and a resolution of metabolic syndrome in a cohort of adolescents with obesity, according to randomized controlled trial data published in JAMA Network Open.

Increasing lifetime exposure to antimicrobial agents was associated with increasing likelihood for overweight and obesity among older children, according to a study published in Pediatric Obesity.

Digital interventions, such as websites, text messages and exercise-based video games, offered as part of pediatric obesity treatment added to small weight losses, but had no effect on obesity prevention, according to a meta-analysis.

A new analysis shows highly variable trajectories over time in the height and BMI of school-aged children across countries, raising concerns about access to healthy foods and global nutrition programs.

Children may be more likely to gain fat mass if they have an earlier morning wake time, according to a speaker at ObesityWeek Interactive.