Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescent Obesity

Obesity is the epidemic of the century, due to its prevalence, impact on national budgets, loss in a gross domestic product, productivity loss, and impact on mortality, morbidity and quality of life. National behaviour change campaigns have not yet shown acceptable long-term results, and there is a...

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Main Author: Jorge Navarrete-Dualde
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Academic Research and Publishing UG (i. G.) 2022-12-01
Series:Health Economics and Management Review
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Online Access:https://armgpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/hem_4_7.pdf
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author Jorge Navarrete-Dualde
author_facet Jorge Navarrete-Dualde
author_sort Jorge Navarrete-Dualde
collection DOAJ
description Obesity is the epidemic of the century, due to its prevalence, impact on national budgets, loss in a gross domestic product, productivity loss, and impact on mortality, morbidity and quality of life. National behaviour change campaigns have not yet shown acceptable long-term results, and there is a need for higher taxation on unhealthy food. Besides, adolescents are vulnerable and easily targeted by “ultra-funded” sophisticated marketing campaigns. Modest evidence on first and second-line treatments makes bariatric surgery the main treatment of choice. Bariatric surgery could be the standard of care provided to those adolescents who failed weight loss attempts for more than six months and present pre-specified high body mass index and obesity-related comorbidities. To confirm whether the findings extracted from the initial narrative search were still valid, an additional, more profound narrative search, including systematic literature review features, was performed, extracting information before the COVID-19 pandemic from three databases: PubMed from 2018 to 2019; Google Scholar from 2018 to 2019; and The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination from the University of York (from 2010 to 2019). Policymakers need to commit with community health campaigns to change societal behaviour on the real impact of obesity. There is a need for earmarked taxation on unhealthy food to prevent obesity publicly and provide enough funds to increase the provision and reimbursement of bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery at early ages can reduce the progression of morbid obesity-related comorbidities. However, evaluations of morbidly obese adolescents are not performed in time, due to barriers, which avoid upcoming bariatric surgery procedures. Stakeholders should develop strategies to reduce attrition rate and improve patient retention through juvenile-oriented care. There are still ethical aspects pending since we do not fully know the long-term effects and complications. Given the low impact of public preventive campaigns targeting voluntary behavioural change in the long run, and the lax taxation and regulation on the food industry, decision makers should change their mind on bariatric surgery, from an indulgent waste of money to an effective fund-saver.
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spelling doaj-art-1cf661f76ecb43f088a4c1f4efdf18f52025-08-20T03:06:32ZengAcademic Research and Publishing UG (i. G.)Health Economics and Management Review2786-46262786-46342022-12-0134627310.61093/hem.2022.4-07Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescent ObesityJorge Navarrete-Dualde0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9767-8894The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), United KingdomObesity is the epidemic of the century, due to its prevalence, impact on national budgets, loss in a gross domestic product, productivity loss, and impact on mortality, morbidity and quality of life. National behaviour change campaigns have not yet shown acceptable long-term results, and there is a need for higher taxation on unhealthy food. Besides, adolescents are vulnerable and easily targeted by “ultra-funded” sophisticated marketing campaigns. Modest evidence on first and second-line treatments makes bariatric surgery the main treatment of choice. Bariatric surgery could be the standard of care provided to those adolescents who failed weight loss attempts for more than six months and present pre-specified high body mass index and obesity-related comorbidities. To confirm whether the findings extracted from the initial narrative search were still valid, an additional, more profound narrative search, including systematic literature review features, was performed, extracting information before the COVID-19 pandemic from three databases: PubMed from 2018 to 2019; Google Scholar from 2018 to 2019; and The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination from the University of York (from 2010 to 2019). Policymakers need to commit with community health campaigns to change societal behaviour on the real impact of obesity. There is a need for earmarked taxation on unhealthy food to prevent obesity publicly and provide enough funds to increase the provision and reimbursement of bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery at early ages can reduce the progression of morbid obesity-related comorbidities. However, evaluations of morbidly obese adolescents are not performed in time, due to barriers, which avoid upcoming bariatric surgery procedures. Stakeholders should develop strategies to reduce attrition rate and improve patient retention through juvenile-oriented care. There are still ethical aspects pending since we do not fully know the long-term effects and complications. Given the low impact of public preventive campaigns targeting voluntary behavioural change in the long run, and the lax taxation and regulation on the food industry, decision makers should change their mind on bariatric surgery, from an indulgent waste of money to an effective fund-saver.https://armgpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/hem_4_7.pdfbariatricbehaviourburdencampaigncommunitydecision makerepidemicobesepreventiveregulation
spellingShingle Jorge Navarrete-Dualde
Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescent Obesity
Health Economics and Management Review
bariatric
behaviour
burden
campaign
community
decision maker
epidemic
obese
preventive
regulation
title Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescent Obesity
title_full Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescent Obesity
title_fullStr Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescent Obesity
title_full_unstemmed Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescent Obesity
title_short Socioeconomic Challenges of Adolescent Obesity
title_sort socioeconomic challenges of adolescent obesity
topic bariatric
behaviour
burden
campaign
community
decision maker
epidemic
obese
preventive
regulation
url https://armgpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/hem_4_7.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT jorgenavarretedualde socioeconomicchallengesofadolescentobesity