WHO issued its first-ever global guidelines on child and adolescent obesity on October 7, 2026. The guidelines strongly recommend structured dietary, physical activity, and behavioral interventions as first-line treatment. Pharmacological treatment and bariatric surgery are restricted for children under 10 and only conditionally recommended for adolescents 10-19 when lifestyle programs fail.
Claims
- ▪Diet and exercise interventions alone are not enough to reverse the rise in childhood obesity
- ▪Digital health interventions are conditionally recommended with parent or caregiver supervision.
- ▪WHO strongly recommends structured dietary, physical activity, and behaviour-changing interventions delivered individually or as part of a multimodal programme.
- ▪For adolescents aged 10 to 19, treatment with approved medicines may be considered only when a supervised multimodal lifestyle programme has not achieved the desired results.
- ▪WHO calls for policies including regulatory and fiscal measures to make healthy diets and physical activity more accessible and affordable.
- ▪Dr. Luz Maria De Regil, Director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO, stated that the foundation of obesity care for children is comprehensive support enabling healthy eating, physical activity, and sustainable behaviour change.
- ▪Bariatric surgery may be considered under strict conditions for adolescents with severe obesity.
- ▪170 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 years were living with obesity in 2024, including 70 million children aged 5 to 9 and 100 million adolescents aged 10 to 19.
- ▪WHO does not recommend pharmacological treatment, bariatric surgery, or weight-loss devices for children aged 0 to 9 years.
- ▪Weight-loss medications are appropriate as a first-line treatment for adolescents with obesity
- ▪Obesity prevalence in children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 has quadrupled since 1990, rising from 2 percent to 8 percent.
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