WHO: child, adolescent obesity has quadrupled to affect 170 million

GENEVA – Obesity among children and adolescents aged 5-19 has quadrupled globally since 1990, with 170 million living with the chronic disease in 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

According to the WHO, prevalence among the age group rose from 2 percent in 1990 to 8 percent in 2024. Of those affected, 70 million were children aged 5-9 and 100 million were adolescents aged 10-19.

The figures came as the WHO released its first guidelines on obesity care for children and adolescents, recommending structured interventions focused on diet, physical activity and behavioral change.

The agency said weight-loss medicines, bariatric surgery and weight-loss devices should not be used to treat children aged 0-9.

For adolescents aged 10-19, approved medicines "may be considered" only when a supervised multimodal lifestyle program has failed to achieve the desired results, while bariatric surgery may be considered under strict conditions for severe obesity.

The WHO warned that obesity can increase the risk of diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease from an early age.

It also highlighted the mental health consequences associated with obesity, including stigma, bullying, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem, calling for physical and mental health conditions to be addressed together.

“The foundation of obesity care for children and adolescents is not medicine or surgery, but access to comprehensive support that enables healthy eating, physical activity and sustainable behaviour change,” said Dr. Luz Maria De Regil, the director of the department of nutrition and food Safety at the WHO.

She stressed that the priority must be to ensure that every child and adolescent can access "quality care and supportive environments from an early age, helping them achieve and maintain a healthy weight and laying the foundation for lifelong health and well-being.”

The WHO stressed that obesity care should go beyond weight loss, focusing on overall health, functioning and well-being, with long-term, age-appropriate care tailored to children and their families.

It also warned that treatment alone cannot reverse rising obesity rates, calling for measures to make healthy diets and physical activity more accessible and affordable.