Childhood Obesity News and Research

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Helping fight summer obesity spike among children

In the fight against childhood obesity, summer is one of the most challenging times of the year.

22 Jul 2015

Study explores effects of household smoking on children's later weight gain

Children whose parents smoked when they were toddlers are likely to have a wider waist and a higher BMI by time they reach ten years of age, reveal researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte Justine Research Centre. "We suspect the statistics we've established linking childhood obesity to exposure to parents' smoking may underestimate the effect due to parents under reporting the amount they smoked out of shame," explained Professor Linda Pagani, who led the study.

22 Jun 2015

Breastfeeding Medicine editorial examines risks associated with Internet-purchased breast milk

The practice of breast milk sharing among mothers has evolved into an Internet-based marketplace in which this valuable commodity is being bought and sold not only to feed babies, but as a "natural superfood" for body builders and athletes.

17 Jun 2015

British Columbia researchers develop SCOPE program to help prevent childhood obesity

A multidisciplinary group of researchers from British Columbia has developed a participatory action research program to help address healthy body weight in children.

17 Jun 2015

McMaster University researchers identify key protein required to maintain muscle strength during aging

What causes us to lose muscle strength as we age and how exercise can prevent it from happening has never been thoroughly understood, but McMaster University researchers have discovered a key protein required to maintain muscle mass and muscle strength during aging.

3 Jun 2015

Importance of nut consumption impressed on International Children's Day

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), excess weight and obesity are two of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century.

1 Jun 2015

Diabetes and poor diet can trigger Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, warns BUAP researcher

For several years a researcher was dedicated to feed rodents in his laboratory with a high caloric content and glucose concentrations, which caused them diabetes, and by scientifically assessing what occurred in animals he observed that "diabetes and poor diet is a risk factor for developing Alzheimer's or Parkinson's," warns Samuel Treviño Mora from the Meritorious University of Puebla in Mexico.

28 May 2015

Childhood cancer survivors more likely to be obese than healthy peers

Childhood cancer survivors - especially those whose treatment included brain irradiation or chemotherapy with glucocorticoids - are 14 percent more likely to be obese than their healthy peers.

12 May 2015

Urine profiles provide clues to how obesity causes disease

Scientists have identified chemical markers in urine associated with body mass, providing insights into how obesity causes disease...

30 Apr 2015

Researchers say that lack of safety at school, poverty associated with childhood obesity

A lack of safety at school is one of the correlates of childhood obesity, say researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated Research Centre at CHU Sainte Justine children's hospital.

29 Apr 2015

Students with standing desks more attentive than seated counterparts, Texas A&M study finds

A study from the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health finds students with standing desks are more attentive than their seated counterparts. In fact, preliminary results show 12 percent greater on-task engagement in classrooms with standing desks, which equates to an extra seven minutes per hour of engaged instruction time.

25 Apr 2015

Health-related tweets may help predict hospital emergency room visits

Twitter users who post information about their personal health online might be considered by some to be "over-sharers," but new research led by the University of Arizona suggests that health-related tweets may have the potential to be helpful for hospitals.

16 Apr 2015

Breastfeeding is not a frontline strategy to prevent obesity, say researchers

A new study supports human milk as the optimal first food for babies, but the study raises questions about whether breast milk protects children from becoming obese.

7 Apr 2015

Canadian Task Force issues new guidelines to prevent, manage childhood obesity

Today the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care issued its latest guidelines on the prevention and management of childhood obesity. With 1 in 3 children classified as either overweight or obese in Canada the prevalence of childhood obesity has more than doubled in the last 40 years.

30 Mar 2015

Many parents underestimate children's weight, finds new study

Parents of obese children may not be able to recognise that their child is overweight unless they are at very extreme levels of obesity, according to research led by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and UCL Institute of Child Health, research partner of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

30 Mar 2015

Strategies aimed at reducing childhood obesity should acknowledge individuals' rational taste preferences

Strategies aimed at reducing childhood obesity should acknowledge individuals' rational taste preferences and apply insights from behavioral economics to design choice architecture that increases their likelihood of success, say two physician-scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics in an editorial published in JAMA Pediatrics.

24 Mar 2015

Birmingham academics educate Chinese grandparents to tackle childhood obesity

Academics from the University of Birmingham, UK are engaging with grandparents in China, to help tackle the increasing problem of obesity amongst Chinese children in a trailblazing public health programme.

24 Mar 2015

David Cameron obesity benefit proposals “ethically and financially questionable”

The UK Prime Minister’s recent proposal to cut sickness benefit for people who are obese and refuse treatment is ethically and financially flawed, according to an Editorial in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal.

19 Mar 2015

No adulthood metabolic consequences of central precocious puberty

Researchers have found that girls with central precocious puberty have similar metabolic and general health to other women when they reach young to middle adulthood.

13 Mar 2015

CHOP researchers find link between infancy BMI and childhood obesity

Body mass index (BMI) during infancy may help to predict if a child will be obese by age four. In a study focused on the infant BMI-childhood obesity relationship in a cohort with a majority of African-American children, researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia say that a better understanding of infant growth patterns may lead to more effective early efforts at obesity prevention.

12 Mar 2015