Childhood Obesity: A Global Public Health Crisis

Introduction: childhood obesity is a major public health crisisnationally and internationally. the prevalence of childhood obesityhas increased over few years. it is caused by imbalance between calorieintake and calories utilized. one or more factors (genetic, behavioral,and environmental) cause obesity in children. physical, psychological,and social health problems are caused due to childhood obesity.hence, effective intervention strategies are being used to preventand control obesity in children. the purpose of this manuscript isto address various factors influencing childhood obesity, a variety ofinterventions and governmental actions addressing obesity and thechallenges ahead for managing this epidemic.methods: in order to collect materials for this review a detailedsearch of cinahl, medline, eric, academic search premierdatabases was carried out for the time period 1999?2011.results: some of the interventions used were family based, schoolbased, community based, play based, and hospital based. theeffective school?based interventions were seen targeting physicalactivity along with healthy diet education. the major challengesfaced by these intervention programs are financial, along withstigmatization of obese children. governments along with otherhealth care organizations are taking effective actions like policychanging and environmentally safe interventions for children toimprove physical activity.conclusions: in conclusion, childhood obesity can be tackledat the population level by education, prevention and sustainableinterventions related to healthy nutrition practices and physicalactivity promotion.