ABSTRACT
Although preventing the development of obesity in children is obviously preferable, treating obesity in childhood is a growing priority. Childhood obesity is highly prevalent in developed countries and is an emerging threat to public health in the developing world.1 Childhood obesity frequently persists from early childhood to adolescence.2,3 In addition, adult obesity that originated in and persisted through childhood tends to be more severe and carry more morbidity than adultonset obesity.4 So, the potential public health and economic costs of the tripling in prevalence of childhood obesity in the last three decades could be crippling, if the capacity to deliver cost-effective treatment in developed countries does
not grow to meet this need.5,6 Several high-quality longitudinal studies have provided evidence that if childhood obesity resolves before young adulthood, the attendant risk of cardiometabolic disease approaches that of adults who were never obese.7 Thus, identifying the most cost-effective treatment strategies for obesity in childhood and building the capacity to deliver them are of utmost importance.
