Globally, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has shown a remarkable rise in last couple of decades, both among the children and adult sections of society. Initially thought to be a disease of the high-income nations, this disease is now showing its presence even in the poor income nations. Evaluation of the national health policies has revealed major shortcomings in the existing policies ...

Among rural families, rates of both child obesity and household food insecurity (FI) are higher compared to non-rural families. These disparities result from a complex interplay of social and environmental conditions that influence behavior. The Transtheoretical Model suggests individual readiness to change underlies success in modifying obesity-preventing behaviors; however, whether an associa...

BACKGROUND Most research pertaining to childhood obesity has assessed the effectiveness of preventative interventions, while relatively little has been done to advance knowledge in the treatment of obesity. Thus, a 4-week family- and group-based intervention utilizing group dynamics strategies designed to increase cohesion was implemented to influence the lifestyles and physical activity levels...

OBJECTIVE Understanding the mechanisms by which neighbourhood environments influence childhood obesity is needed to facilitate the development of prevention strategies. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to identify the distinct types of neighbourhoods in which Canadian children reside and examine the extent to which physical activity and sedentary behaviour mediate the relationshi...

OBJECTIVE To assess whether equipping resident pediatricians and community pediatricians with both training and practical tools improves their perceived confidence, ease, and frequency of obesity-related counseling to patients. METHODS In 2005-2006, resident pediatricians (n = 49) and community pediatricians (n = 18) received training regarding three evidence-based obesity prevention/treatmen...

Childhood obesity has reached epidemic levels in the developed world. Recent research and commentary suggest that an ecological approach is required to address childhood obesity, given the multidimensional nature of the problem. We propose a Canadian prototype, the Child Health Ecological Surveillance System, for a regional health authority to address the growing obesity epidemic. This prototyp...

Obesity presents major challenges for public health and the evidence is strong. Lessons from tobacco control indicate a need for changing the policy and environments to make healthy choices easier and to create more opportunities for children to achieve healthy weights. In April 2011, the Alberta Policy Coalition for Chronic Disease Prevention convened a consensus conference on environmental de...

Overweight and obesity prevalence is increasing worldwide both in developed and developing countries. In the United States, obesity increased for both sexes, as well as across ages, and ethnicities [1]. In 2008, 33.9% of American adults was obese and 34.4% was overweight [2]. Moreover in 2010, there was no state in the United States that had a prevalence of obesity less than 20% [3]. In 2010, 1...

BACKGROUND Reducing the prevalence of and inequities in the distribution of child obesity will require developing interventions that are sensitive to the situation of 'high risk' groups of children. Children with intellectual disability appear to be one such group. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of obesity in children with and without intellectual disability in a longitudinal representativ...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the degree of educational inequality in the occurrence of abdominal obesity in a population of non-faculty civil servants at university campi.METHODS In this cross-sectional study, we used data from 3,117 subjects of both genders aged 24 to 65-years old, regarding the baseline of Pró-Saúde Study, 1999-2001. Abdominal obesity was defined according to abdominal circumference...