ESPE Abstracts

Adolescent obesity has an immense burden of disease and results in premature death due to several mechanisms: The classic cardiovascular risk factors associated with obesity, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus, lead to cardiovascular diseases and consequently to premature death. Furthermore, adolescent obesity is associated with many life- limiting cancer types occurring 10 to 20 years later replacing smoking as the leading modifiable cause for cancer. However, obesity in adolescence has major implications not only for the affected adolescents but also for society. Obesity in adolescents is associated with a range of social problems, including difficulties securing an apprenticeship or a job or finding a partner. Adolescents with obesity are also at increased risk of having children with obesity later in life. All these consequences lead to high costs for the health-care system. It is quite clear that obesity in adolescence is associated with increased health-care use (direct cost) as well as indirect costs (productivity losses including sick-leave days, long-term incapacity, early retirement and premature death). Additionally, adolescents with obesity might be less able to contribute to financing our social system when they are adults since they have likely problems to get an employment. Although efficient treatment options are available that have been proven in randomized controlled trials, such as lifestyle interventions, drugs and bariatric surgery for adolescents with severe obesity, these interventions fail frequently in clinical practice as most adolescents with obesity do not seek medical care. Furthermore, adolescent patients are characterized by low treatment adherence. In conclusion, since adolescent obesity leads to reduce quality of life, many social problems, premature death, and immense costs not only for our health system, we have to identify and overcome treatment barriers and have to optimize treatment approaches even if our present attempts fail frequently.