Yesterday, February 16th, professor Victora took part in a meeting on child obesity in New York City. In the workshop, organized by UNICEF, he presented “Exploring the early life determinants of child overweight and the double burden of malnutrition”, in the first session called “The current situation of child overweight”.

Concerning this topic, in 2013, Robert Black, Cesar Victora and collaborators have published a paper on the subject in the Lancet journal. In said paper, authors indicate that “prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing in children younger than 5 years globally and is an important contributor to diabetes and other chronic diseases in adulthood." Furthermore, results show that obesity during childhood tends to occur more among children with higher family incomes and living in urban areas.

The figure, presented in the paper, shows differences on overweight prevalence regarding income. The red circles represent the low income children, while the blue ones show children from families with higher income.

Read the full paper: Black RE, Victora CG, Walker SP, Bhutta ZA, Christian P, de Onis M, et al. Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries. Lancet.382(9890):427-51.