ESPE Abstracts

Childhood obesity is a chronic disease with detrimental effects on health and wellbeing. Treatment was traditionally focused on reducing caloric intake and increasing energy expenditure. However, considering the global increase in prevalence in obesity, especially in the paediatric age range, this approach is insufficient and transition to new initiatives is needed. Obesity is a complex disease resulting from the interaction of multiple underlying factors, including personal characteristics (e.g. genetic, physiological and psychological) and environmental factors (e.g. socio-economic, cultural and physical environments) that can influence lifestyle behaviour and lead to the development or maintenance of childhood obesity. Adequate management of childhood obesity calls for taking into account biomedical factors, psychological factors and social factors at various levels. In the approach towards overweight and obesity, focus should be on prevention aimed at a healthy living environment for children in general as well as on support and care for children that already developed overweight or obesity, which can be defined by a collaboration of different organizations and professionals from the healthcare domain and social domain in a network. In the Netherlands, the transition in obesity care has started in 2009 and recently became the official national model of treatment to be implemented. The development of the national model was formed out of a collaboration with eight selected Dutch municipalities including input from local stakeholders (health insurers, healthcare organisations and partners from the social domain). The national model describes a structure for local integrated care that should facilitate support and care for children with obesity and their families. Learning communities were set up to exchange knowledge, experiences and tools between the participating municipalities. The accompanying materials are distributed into materials for policymakers to support local realization of the integrated care and materials for healthcare professionals. It is of importance to share our experiences with the international community so that they can make their own adjustments to achieve a national dynamic learning model. In this way, addressing obesity can sustainably improve the support and care and thus the health and quality of life of our patients.