Chrissini MK, Panagiotakos DB. Public health interventions tackling childhood obesity at European level: A literature review.
Prev Med Rep 2022;
30:102068. [PMID:
36531092 PMCID:
PMC9747664 DOI:
10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.102068]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2022] [Revised: 11/15/2022] [Accepted: 11/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Childhood obesity pandemic, a form of malnutrition including undernutrition, and other food-regime associated risks, has universally been on the rise during the chronic period of the past 4-5 decades and is now acknowledged as one of the most "toxic fuel" accounting for poor health in the majority of countries. In order to find remedies to heal this alarming issue, a corpus of European interventions have been brought to light in the recent years. Since the vague influence and effectiveness of these measures / policies is to be further identified, their evaluation screening is underlined as a pivotal necessity. Within this framework this paper aims to critically report on the development and evaluation of the implementation of the European Union, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, and European Union countries' national public health policy interventions and action plans in the fight against childhood obesity. Thus, this is a narrative review synthesizing the results -following a qualitative interpretation and analysis- of recent scientific epidemiological research and review studies evidence concerning European public health interventions tackling childhood obesity, through computer-assisted literature search -via PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar- scientific databases. According to the literature data, it is concluded that despite the unprecedented public health challenge of addressing childhood obesity, the extent to which related European policies and programs targeting healthy nutrition, increased physical activity, and healthy lifestyle ethos are truly efficacious is still under inquiry.
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