Overview
- The World Health Organization has published its first clinical guidelines for treating obesity in children and adolescents that place supervised lifestyle and behaviour‑change programs at the center of care.
- The rules bar drug, surgical, and device‑based weight‑loss treatments for children up to age nine and allow medications for 10–19‑year‑olds only after at least six months of supervised lifestyle treatment that fails to produce expected results.
- The guidance requires teams to include mental‑health support because anxiety, depression and stigma can worsen eating and activity habits and raise long‑term health risks.
- WHO warned that clinical care alone will not stop rising rates of youth obesity, highlighted multi‑trillion‑dollar accumulated costs, and called for public policies to improve access to healthy foods and safe places to be active.
- Obesity among 5–19‑year‑olds has risen sharply since 1990 to about 8 percent worldwide, an estimated 170 million young people in 2024, with high‑income countries stabilizing and many low‑ and middle‑income nations still seeing increases.