CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 2,700Obesity, Physical Activity, DietDiabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and LipoproteinsObesity and Health Practices

Health Consequences of Obesity in Youth: Childhood Predictors of Adult Disease

Dietz, William H.·1998·Pediatrics
DOI 10.1542/peds.101.s2.518
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Obesity now affects one in five children in the United States. Discrimination against overweight children begins early in childhood and becomes progressively institutionalized. Because obese children tend to be taller than their nonoverweight peers, they are apt to be viewed as more mature. The inappropriate expectations that result may have an adverse effect on their socialization. Many of the cardiovascular consequences that characterize adult-onset obesity are preceded by abnormalities that begin in childhood. Hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and abnormal glucose tolerance occur with increased frequency in obese children and adolescents. The relationship of cardiovascular risk factors to visceral fat independent of total body fat remains unclear. Sleep apnea, pseudotumor cerebri, and Blount's disease represent major sources of morbidity for which rapid and sustained weight reduction is essential. Although several periods of increased risk appear in childhood, it is not clear whether obesity with onset early in childhood carries a greater risk of adult morbidity and mortality. Obesity is now the most prevalent nutritional disease of children and adolescents in the United States. Although obesity-associated morbidities occur more frequently in adults, significant consequences of obesity as well as the antecedents of adult disease occur in obese children and adolescents. In this review, I consider the adverse effects of obesity in children and adolescents and attempt to outline areas for future research. I refer to obesity as a body mass index greater than the 95th percentile for children of the same age and gender.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1542/peds.101.s2.518

Cites

88 of 88 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Obesity and its adverse health consequences create a serious threat to children's current and future health.

    “Given that children who are overweight and obese youth are likely to remain so as adults [106], obesity and its adverse health consequences create a serious threat to children’s current and future health [107].”

    From The negative impact of sugar-sweetened beverages on children’s health: an update of the literature (2018) · cites this paper as [107]

  • The principal objectives of Healthy People 2010 are to improve the quality of healthy living and eliminate health disparities through interventions aimed at heart disease and stroke prevention.

    “The principal objectives are to improve the quality of healthy living and eliminate health disparities through interventions aimed at heart disease and stroke prevention.515,516”

    From Triglycerides and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association (2011) · cites this paper as [516]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Dietz, W. H.
Affiliations
Tufts University (US)
Corresponding author
Dietz, William H.
ORCID
Dietz, William H.
Venue
Pediatrics
Publisher
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
Published
1998-03-01
Volume
101
Issue
Supplement_2
Pages
518-525
ISSN
  • 0031-4005 (ISSN-L)
  • 1098-4275
DOI
10.1542/peds.101.s2.518
OpenAlex
W2107065593
Cited by
2,700
References
88
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 44 · 2021: 56 · 2020: 82 · 2019: 89 · 2018: 89 · 2017: 113 · 2016: 119 · 2015: 121 · 2014: 167 · 2013: 166 · 2012: 183
FWCI
39.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • PEDIATRICS (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and Lipoproteins
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Obesity and Health Practices
Keywords
childhood obesity, adolescent obesity, adult-onset obesity, cardiovascular risk factors, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, impaired glucose tolerance, visceral fat, sleep apnea, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, Blount's disease, weight loss, socialization
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Body Constitution, Diabetes Mellitus, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Female, Health Status, Humans, Obesity, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Probability, Risk Factors, Socialization, United States, Comorbidity, Prevalence

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review