Fears over rise in obese children

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Two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine from the US and Denmark say that overweight children have more heart problems in later life and there will be more of them in the future.

The Danish study, which tracked more than 250,000 school children in Copenhagen from 1930 to 1976, found overweight boys in particular grew up to have more heart problems.

The heavier they were as youngsters, particularly entering their teens, the greater the risk. For example, a 13-year-old boy who was 25lbs above the average weight was found to be 33% more likely than a child of normal weight to have a heart attack or some other problem caused by coronary heart disease (CHD) by age 60.

The finding "suggests that more children than ever before are facing increased risks of CHD in adulthood," said the team led by Jennifer Baker of the Centre for Health and Society in Copenhagen.

The second study said that of the 17% of boys and 16% of girls in the United States now overweight a quarter of the boys are obese, and that number is expected to increase to 30 to 37 per cent by 2020, when they turn 35.

For females in that group, 32% of whom now are obese, the ratio will rise to 34 to 44% according to that research team, led by Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California, San Francisco.

That will lead to more heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure at a younger age, and even aggressive treatment will not be able to stem the trend, they reported.

By 2035, the prevalence of heart disease will have increased by 5 to 16%, they estimated.

"Barring a major advance in the treatment of either excessive weight gain itself or its associated alterations in blood pressure, lipid levels and glucose metabolism, current adolescent overweight will have a substantial effect on public health far into the future," they concluded.