Adolescent Obesity – Emerging Public Health Problem of 21st Century

Many Countries struggle to tackle the consequences of under nutrition and infectious diseases. At the same time, they are also now showing a rapid increase in non-communicable diseases and their risk factors like obesity and overweight, especially in urban areas. In the present era, it is quite common to find co-existence of under nutrition and obesity within a country, within a community and even within a household. Children living in developing and under-developed countries are more susceptible to poor nutrition during antenatal period, infancy and childhood. On the contrary, children also have easy access to food products with increased salt and fat percentage, decreased levels of micro nutrients and more junk calories. The synergistic effects of high calorie intake and low physical activity lead to increase in prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity. This article discusses about the aetiology, epidemiology and determinants of adolescent obesity.