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The World Health Organization recommended on Wednesday to follow a diet, exercise, and provide guidance instead of relying on common weight loss medications, in the first global guidelines issued by the organization to address the rising rates of obesity among young children.
Data from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) indicates that obesity rates have surpassed underweight to become the most common form of malnutrition among school-age children and young people worldwide.
The World Health Organization said that the issue of resorting to weight loss medications for those aged ten to 19 years who suffer from obesity could be considered, but only after the failure of interventions under supervision.
It added that it is possible to consider bariatric surgery for physically and mentally mature young people who suffer from extreme obesity after six months of treatment without achieving successful results.
For children under the age of ten, the World Health Organization recommended following a diet, physical activity, and joint behavioral support instead of obesity medications, surgery, or devices due to doubts about their safety and effectiveness in the long term.
Luz Maria de Rigil, Director of the Nutrition and Food Safety Department, said that the currently available evidence is not sufficient to issue a final opinion on drugs and medications based on glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) hormone, but researchers are monitoring efficacy and safety trials and may review this assessment as more data emerges.
The World Health Organization said that healthy diets and physical activity should be available and affordable because treatment alone cannot stop the rise in obesity rates.
The organization reported that the number of overweight people aged five to 19 years in 2024 was about 400 million, including 170 million who suffer from obesity. The prevalence rate of obesity in this age group has quadrupled since 1990.
Health Minister Ibrahim Al-Budour revealed the results of the global school health survey in Jordan for the age group of 13 to 17 years, which showed that 32.9% of students in this age group suffer from overweight or obesity, with 20.8% being overweight alone, while 12.1% of students suffer from obesity.
The results also showed that only 12% of students in this age group engage in physical activity for more than 60 minutes a day during weekdays, while 31.5% of them did not participate in school sports classes. The percentage of overweight students in public schools was 30.3%, compared to 42.5% in private schools.
The study for school students was prepared by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, and with the support of the World Health Organization.
Al-Budour said that these results and the health indicators shown by the survey led the Ministry of Health to take a set of measures in coordination with the concerned authorities, aiming to improve the health and food environment in schools, enhance physical activity among students, and reduce risk factors associated with overweight, obesity, and lack of physical activity.
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