title: Childhood obesity for pediatric gastroenterologists.
abstract: Obesity in childhood is one of the major health issues in pediatric health care today. As expected, the prevalence of obesity-related comorbidities has risen in parallel with that of obesity. Consultation regarding these concomitant diseases and subsequent management by subspecialists, including pediatric gastroenterologists, is now common and has resulted in obesity being recognized as a chronic disease requiring coordination of care. Although medications and even surgery may provide effective, though often temporary, treatments for obesity and its comorbidities, behavioral interventions addressing healthy dietary and physical activity habits remain a mainstay in the obesity treatment paradigm. Therefore, the issue of weight management must be addressed by both general practitioner and subspecialist alike. In this report, we review select aspects of pediatric obesity and obesity-related management issues because it relates in particular to the field of pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology.
authors.affiliation: University of California, San Diego and Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, CA, USA. jshuang@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Jeannie S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Barlow
authors.forename: Ruben E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Quiros-Tejeira
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scheimann
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skelton
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Suskind
authors.forename: Patrika
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Uko
authors.forename: Joshua P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Warolin
authors.forename: Stavra A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Xanthakos
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D015897:Comorbidity; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods*