Understanding teenage obesity

This is the third article in a series looking at childhood obesity at various stages of development. Having discussed infant and primary school age children in the previous articles, this article seeks to identify the specific challenges faced by adolescents/young people who are living with obesity.

Alarming figures show that 40% of males age 16-75 years are overweight and 20% are obese. For women the figures indicate that fewer are overweight but more are obese. The consequences of this are severe, with one key study highlighting how this generation of children may be the first to die before their parents.¹