OBESITY COMPLICATIONS AND THE EFFECTS OF DIETS ON CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Key words: Childhood obesity, Complications, Diet

We enrolled a cohort of 185 children and adolescents with middle-grave obesity (E.P.>40%) from the Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology Center in Trieste. The aim of the study was to describe the frequency of obesity complications and to evaluate the effects of a diet program. We found that the most frequent early complications of childhood obesity were: hepatic steatosis (33%), insulin resistance (38%), hypertension (32%) and metabolic syndrome (9%). All obese children enrolled agreed to undergo a diet. All patients showed a loss of weight, with an average loss of weight of 10% in the first 6 months. However, a low compliance to the diet was seen during the follow-up.