The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on August 10, 2005
The European Journal of Public Health 2005 15(6):576-579; doi:10.1093/eurpub/cki068
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Obesity |
Policies to prevent childhood obesity in the European Union
T. Lobstein1 and L. A. Baur2
1 Childhood Obesity Working Group of the International Obesity TaskForce (IOTF), London, UK
2 Childhood Obesity Working Group of IOTF, University of Sydney Discipline of Paediatrics & Child Health, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, NSW, Australia
Correspondence: Tim Lobstein, Coordinator, Childhood Obesity Working Group of the International Obesity TaskForce (IOTF), 231 North Gower Street, London NW1 2NS, UK, tel: +44 20 7691 1900, e-mail: childhood{at}iotf.org
The increasing prevalence of childhood obesity needs to be addressed. Without clear evidence to show which preventive interventions are most likely to work, a series of precautionary measures can be suggested. At a meeting of scientific experts organised by the International Obesity TaskForce and held at the European Congress on Obesity in May, 2004, a number of measures were proposed which follow the precautionary principle of promoting health while being unlikely to increase the risk of harm. The proposals are reported in the present paper.
Keywords: child, obesity, prevention, policies, expert opinion