Obesity diffusion among children and adolescents: trends, methodological problems and countermeasures at european level

While the obesity epidemic is a well know public health concern, an emerging problem is that of childhood obesity. Obesity in children reaches peaks of about 30% in US and of 23% in South Europe. This is major concern not only at present times, but also as a perspective. Many actions have been endeavored by different public bodies to counteract this trend, but they lack of a coordination. This coordination is necessary non only at a continental level, but due to the globalization trend, they have to be coordinated at a global dimension. The present review, after a survey of the existing data on the dimensions of the problem, lists the actions that have been undertaken by the European Union in order to know the determinants of childhood obesity. The necessity of global coordinated action to fight this growing problem is addressed.