Obese Kids Report Similar Quality of Life to Kids with Cancer
CHICAGO
Overweight kids aren't just the butt of jokes among their peers, their condition also severely compromises their quality of life, a study said.
Researchers who quizzed 106 obese children and adolescents found they were five times more likely than their healthy peers to have impaired physical functioning, with a quality of life similar to that of very sick children suffering from cancer.
The most common problems reported by the kids and their parents were fatty liver disease, high insulin levels, and abnormalities in cholesterol and lipids that are associated with increased cardiovascular disease.
But "even in the absence of these physical conditions, children and parents reported a low quality of life," said Jeffrey Schwimmer, pediatric gastroenterologist at the University of California, San Diego and lead researcher on the study.
Obese children missed more days at school and underperformed academically compared with their healthy peers. They were also more likely to suffer from mild depression.
The highest rate of childhood obesity was seen in Mexican-American boys, and even though the condition is fairly common among Hispanics, the children and their parents still reported severely impacted quality of life, according to Schwimmer.
The findings, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, heighten the need for greater education to improve treatment for obese children, Schwimmer said.
"Many people, including physicians, don't realise that what they perceive as merely a 'chubby,' child may actually be an obese child. For example, a healthy seven-year-old should be quite lean," Schwimmer said.
One in seven US children and adolescents is obese, according to background information in the study, and previous studies have shown that overweight children are at increased risk for various chronic diseases in later life, and often suffer from a negative self-image that persists into adulthood.
The findings of this study were based on questionnaires completed by and physical and lab exams involving 106 children who were being treated at Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego, California.
AFP
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