Journal of Gastrointestinal & Digestive System
Open Access

Research Article

Overweight-Obesity Prevalence in Children of North-West Italy: Efficacy of Counselling

Renata Colombo¹, Elisabetta Scurati-Manzoni^2*, Domenico Careddu³ and Andrea Guala²

¹Azienda Sanitaria Locale, Vercelli, Regione Piemonte, Italy

²Struttura Operativa Complessa di Pediatria, Ospedale Castelli, Verbania, Italy

³Azienda Sanitaria Locale, Novara, Regione Piemonte, Italy

*Corresponding Author:

Elisabetta Scurati-Manzoni
Struttura Operativa Complessa di Pediatria
Ospedale Castelli; Verbania, Italy
Tel: 00393208010886
E-mail: lisa.scurati@libero.it

Received date: August 14, 2015 Accepted date: September 02, 2015 Published date: September 10, 2015

Citation: Colombo R, Scurati-Manzoni E, Careddu D, Guala A (2015) Overweight-Obesity Prevalence in Children of North-West Italy: Efficacy of Counseling. J Gastrointest Dig Syst 5:337. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.1000337

Copyright: © 2015 Colombo R, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: The increased incidence of obesity and overweight, among adults and children, is the most alarming “epidemic” of this decade. The Italian annual survey “Okkio alla Salute – Promozione della salute e della crescita sana dei bambini della scuola primaria”, showed, in 2009, that overweight and obesity affect 32.8% of Italian children. After considering these results, 16 family pediatricians of the province of Vercelli, from January 2010 on carried out a survey in order to assess pediatric obesity prevalence in their province. Methods: During children’s routine medical checks, age ranges 3-4, 5-6 and 8-9, anthropometric parameters were collected. From 2011 counselling about exercise, diet and healthy lifestyle was offered as well. Results: The graphs show that the drops in prevalence of obese and overweight patients, between 2010 and 2013, are statistically significant among age ranges 3-4 and 5-6 (especially among the 3-4 age group), but statistically not significant among the age range 8-9. Conclusions: Family pediatricians have the resources to prevent and treat overweight and obesity, involving the family and children in target interventions with effectiveness, as also published data evidence, and referring only most critical cases to second level nutrition advisory service. Yet, it is very important to start offering the parents counselling, since the first days of children’s life, as the older the children are, the more difficult it is for them to modify diet habits and lifestyle.

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