New data on childhood obesity in Serbia

The number of obese children in Serbia continues to grow! These are the results of the latest study by the associates of our Center, which was published a few days ago in the international scientific journal Children. As part of the international research consortium COSI of the World Health Organization, an increase in the incidence of obesity and overnutrition among children in Serbia in the previous period was observed. In a sample of over 6,000 boys and girls of preschool and younger school age, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased among children in Serbia from 30.7% in 2015 to 34.8% in 2019. Comparing the frequency of obesity in the world and in our country, it seems that our country is following the trend of increasing obesity in the pediatric population. Based on the presented results, it is noticed that every third child in our country is overweight or obese, which is very worrying, because the tendency of increased incidence of childhood obesity is expected to continue in the coming years. Consequently, urgent measures are needed to monitor the nourishment and nutrition of children and to put the fight against childhood obesity in the focus of all public health policies.