Obesity and Weight Regulation

Abstract

We have been very happy to get 2,049 papers out of our established search strategy in PubMed, which have been saved in our 2013 Yearbook EndNote database. We then selected 22 papers which in our mind have been the most exciting ones. The highlights in this year's chapter are publications on the influence of sugar consumption on BMI development, new findings on the development, occurrence and function of brown adipose tissue in humans, recent findings on leptin deficiency and leptin resistance, and finally more insight into the possible role of bariatric surgery as a therapeutic option in adolescents with extreme obesity. Thus, the present Yearbook chapter on obesity and weight regulation covers again a broad research area with some new developments, which we think have the potential for a future breakthrough. New risk assessment of overweight and obesity Cardiovascular disease risk in healthy children and its association with body mass index: systematic review and meta-analysisFriedemann C, Heneghan C, Mahtani K, Thompson M, Perera R, Ward AM Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Claire. Friedemann@phc.ox.ac.uk BMJ 2012;345:e4759 Background: Two thirds of the world's population live in countries where obesity-related illness is a significant cause of mortality. However, the effect of obesity on children is currently less well understood. Therefore, this analysis aimed to systematically review available evidence on the magnitude of the association between body mass index and cardiovascular risk in obese children and adolescents. Methods: Literature research included papers published between January 2000 and December 2011 indexed in PubMed, Embase, EBSCOhost's cumulative index to nursing and allied health literature, and the Web of Science databases. Studies were included in the review if they enrolled healthy children between 5 and 15 years from highly developed countries, were initiated after 1990, used retrospective, cross-sectional, case-control, or RCT study designs, and reported weight and at least one prespecified cardiovascular risk factor. For quality assessment of the systematic review, an adapted risk of bias tool of the Cochrane Collaboration was used.Results: Meta-analysis included 63 studies of 49,220 children from 23 countries. Systolic, diastolic and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure was significantly higher in overweight or obese children compared to normal-weight children. Resting systolic pressure was higher in overweight and obese patients (overweight: 4.54 mm Hg; 99% CI 2.44; 6.64; p < 0.001; obese: 7.49 mm Hg; 99% CI 3.36; 11.62; p < 0.001) as well as diastolic (overweight: 2.57 mm Hg; 1.55; 3.58; p < 0.001; obese: 4.06 mm Hg; 2.05; 6.08; p < 0.001) compared to normal-weight peers. Similar associations were seen in 24-hour ambulatory systolic blood pressure. Obesity was associated with unfavorable serum lipid profiles characterized by elevated total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (Tg) levels (TC 0.15 mmol/l; 0.04; 0.25; p < 0.001; Tg 0.21 mmol/l; ...