Report outlines childhood obesity challenges
Looks at the effectiveness of the sugar-tax, how to target interventions for immigrants and the role of industry
A report has been released in advance of the Uppsala Health Summit, which takes place on 11-12 October 2016 at Uppsala University, Sweden. The report has been produced to prepare the 200 delegates for discussions on concrete solutions to the challenges of ending childhood obesity, including the effectiveness of the much debated sugar-tax, how to target interventions for immigrants and the role of industry.
'We aim for an open and frank dialogue, and we would like the participants to take with them a feeling of empowerment and new tools and ideas to tackle childhood obesity in their specific contexts,' says Rikard Landberg, researcher, chair of the Uppsala Health Summit programme committee for 2016 and one of the co-authors of the report.
Over the past year, as health advocates and experts in all parts of the world have raised warnings for the alarming number of obesity-affected children in middle-income and low-income settings, particularly, where unequal growth and urbanisation have paved the way for unhealthy diets and sedentary life-styles, putting children at high risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes type 2.
Last year, a WHO commission produced a report specifying which approaches are likely to be most effective in tackling childhood obesity. The recommendations were conveyed at World Health Assembly in May of this year. Uppsala Health Summit starts with these recommendations and aims to produce concrete actions that can be effective in different contexts around the world. The issue is complex and demands broad collaboration where different sectors work on different fronts simultaneously.
The pre-conference report can be ordered from info@uppsalahealthsummit.se or downloaded from the Uppsala Health Summit website.
