Childhood obesity is a health threat that is becoming more and more common worldwide. It increases risk later on for a variety of life-threatening challenges, including type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and even mental health problems.
Childhood obesity is a health threat that is becoming more and more common worldwide. It increases risk later on for a variety of life-threatening challenges, including type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease and even mental health problems.
A new study led by scientists at USC and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) is the first to comprehensively profile environmental factors linked to childhood obesity. The research showed that a higher body mass index (BMI), an estimate of body fat, during childhood is associated with exposure to smoking — both in the womb and while growing up — as well as air pollution and certain characteristics seen in some urban areas. Differences in socioeconomic status did not explain these results.
The findings were just published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
“People are not exposed to only one chemical during their lives,” said Dr. Lida Chatzi, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the senior author of the study. “They are exposed to multiple chemicals. With that in mind, we try to understand the totality of environmental exposures.”
Read more at Keck School of Medicine of USC
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