Guidelines for treating child and adolescent obesity: A systematic review

Louise Tully, Niamh Arthurs, Cathy Wyse, Sarah Browne, Lucinda Case, Lois McCrea, Jean M. O’Connell, Clodagh S. O’Gorman, Susan M. Smith, Aisling Walsh, Fiona Ward, Grace O’Malley*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Obesity is a chronic disease that compromises the physical and mental health of an increasing proportion of children globally. In high-income countries, prevalence of paediatric obesity is increasing faster in those from marginalised populations such as low-income households, suggesting the disease as one that is largely systemic. Appropriate treatment should be prioritised in these settings to prevent the development of complications and co-morbidities and manage those that already exist. An array of clinical practice guidelines are available for managing overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, but no systematic review has yet compared their quality or synthesised their recommendations. We aimed to narratively review clinical practice guidelines published in English for treating child and adolescent obesity, to identify the highest quality guidelines, and assess similarities, conflicts, and gaps in recommendations. We systematically searched academic databases and grey literature for guidelines published. We used the AGREE II tool to assess the quality, and identified nine high quality guidelines for inclusion in a narrative review of recommendations. Guidelines predominantly recommended the delivery of multi-component behaviour-change interventions aimed at improving nutrition and physical activity. Treatment outcomes were generally focussed on weight, with less emphasis on managing complications or improving quality-of-life. There was no evidence-based consensus on the best mode of delivery, setting, or treatment format. The guidelines rarely included recommendations for addressing the practical or social barriers to behaviour change, such as cooking skills or supervised physical activity. There is insufficient evidence to evaluate pharmaceutical and surgical interventions in children, and these were generally not recommended. It should be noted that this review addressed documents published in English only, and therefore the included guidelines were applicable predominantly to high-resource settings.

Original languageEnglish
Article number902865
JournalFrontiers in Nutrition
Volume9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Oct 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Tully, Arthurs, Wyse, Browne, Case, McCrea, O’Connell, O’Gorman, Smith, Walsh, Ward and O’Malley.

Keywords

  • bariatric
  • childhood obesity treatment
  • clinical practice guidelines
  • medical nutrition therapy
  • obesity management
  • paediatric obesity
  • physical function
  • weight management

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Guidelines for treating child and adolescent obesity: A systematic review'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this