Obesity patients in Maastrich take the floor and lecture specialists


65% of young people believe that they can lose weight and that it is completely their responsibility, that was me, that is why I tried it that way many times, but the reality is that at that age one has nothing, no nutritional education, nor the tools, one does not know what is good and what is bad”.

Konstantine Voynikov, 23-year-old patient.

Maastrich, The Netherlands.- For many years the issue of obesity in children and adolescents has been ignored, even in many cases it is not recognized by parents and health personnel themselves, this has resulted in an alarming increase. Between 1975 and 2016, the prevalence of obesity increased from 0.7% to 5.6% in women and from 0.9% to 7.8% in men, that is, today 157 million adolescents in the world live with obesity.

Given this scenario, the quantitative study Action Teens, presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Maastrich, focuses on this population for the first time, to learn about perceptions, attitudes, behaviors and possible barriers for effective attention in young people from 12 to 17 years old.

The results of the study indicate that 1 out of 4 adolescents do not realize that they live in the obesity classification, in addition 1 out of 3 feel unable to talk to their parents about it; On the other hand, 1 in 3 parents do not realize that their child is classified as obese. 80% of adolescents with observed obesity already have at least one comorbidity and almost two-thirds of adolescents (65%) believe that the responsibility for losing weight lies solely with them.

“As long as I can remember, I lived with obesity, approximately 23 years ago, and I find many memories in this study, in my caregivers that, like a large percentage of them, do not feel responsible for their children’s obesity. For me, the problems of obesity are countless and are different for each person, we could talk about hormones, diet, interaction with our doctors, the truth is that many of us live this disease alone”, shared Konstantine Voynikov , a young patient representative, who came from Bulgaria to Maastrich, the Netherlands, to share his experience at the congress.

Konstantine is part of the European Coalition for People Living With Obesity (ECPO), and although the congress is mainly scientific and medical, this time the patients took the various scenarios to speak to the specialists. “I remember that the first time I went to the nutritionist, he gave me a basic diet, the same as his 100 patients that week, nothing that was strictly for my case, this for a disease with a multisystemic challenge becomes irrelevant (. ..) 65% of young people believe that they can lose weight and that it is completely their responsibility, that was me, that is why I tried it that way many times, but the reality is that at that age one has nothing, neither nutritional education, nor the tools, one does not know what is good and what is bad”.

After this message, the room full of specialists fell into total silence, then came applause, and this complemented another of the most relevant data of the study: Only 13% of the specialists surveyed received more than one day of training on obesity and weight loss tools. This data consumes the great barrier of communication between adolescents and those who should take care of their health, both parents and medical personnel.

“What we see here is an increase in the global prevalence of obesity in adolescents and that is incredible to me, because we have more and more development and science, that there is so much information and yet nothing has been done to help young people. it looks incredible”, reiterates Konstantine.

Generate safe spaces for adolescents

Specialists agree that unrecognized obesity is threatening the lives of children and adolescents by fueling other chronic diseases, including mental health problems, heart conditions, type 2 diabetes, as well as some cancers and bone and joint problems . A person with early obesity has an 80% chance of staying that way into adulthood.

Dr. Louise Baur, president-elect of the World Obesity Federation and professor at the Sydney Medical School, confirms “of course that obesity in this group is the work of adults”, because a young person has not developed his personality, not yet they’re educated enough about themselves, they’re not ready to take on that big fight.

But there is also a big problem to be faced; Of the 5,275 young people who participated in this study, most find out about obesity in YouTube videos or ask questions on social networks, before approaching someone older; on the other hand, the motivation in minors to lose weight is not correct, since they base their decisions on stereotypes, they want to achieve “fitness bodies” in a short time.

About this, Konstantine assures in an interview that “social networks need big changes and control, because we cannot deny that young people go to these spaces to get information”. He suggests that health professionals and parents stay close to what their children observe, and recalled: “With an adult, adolescents feel intimidated, that does not happen with the Internet.”

For this reason, he assures that it is essential to bring better resources to these spaces, but not with the current “influencers”, because it is a totally dishonest environment, “they are people who promote any product and that is not ethical, it is business”, see that type of information is a red flag, he assures, “if someone tells you that you will lose weight with a supplement or pill, it is totally false, we have to look for people who speak based on knowledge, verifiable facts, studies, but whose motivation is not to make millions of pesos but to help others.

In total, the report gathers data from 13,000 people, including 5,275 young people with obesity, 5,389 caregivers or parents, and 2,323 people in charge of the health care of this population. 10 countries participated, including Mexico, who in a few months will be presenting their results individually. Specialists agree that this study will have to be a turning point to start initiatives and generate more evidence that will turn around this sector of the population that suffers from obesity and does so alone and without adequate resources.

It was said in the ECO:

  • It is urgent to treat obesity as a public health problem
  • Pay attention to the information that influencers circulate on social networks
  • Overweight and obesity are defined as an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that can be detrimental to health.
  • Screening for obesity is done by measuring height and weight in the office.

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