Management of Obesity Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence

The worldwide increase of obesity prevalence has led to fundamental challenges for the health care systems, especially due to the related comorbidities like type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Recently, scientific advances have led to an improved understanding of the genome/ epigenome-environment interaction and involved pathways for the regulation of body weight. This knowledge about the genetic/ epigenetic regulation, together with the availability of new pharmacological treatment approaches, open the new opportunity to modify certain environmental aspects and to change current prevention and treatment strategies with the aim to reduce obesity prevalence.