Over 1/3 of children in Bulgaria are overweight

Bulgaria has been ranked fourth in terms of obesity in Europe. Nearly 40 percent of the country’s child population is obese, said Dr. Tsvetelina Tsvetanova, head of the Pediatric Endocrinology Unit at the Pediatrics Clinic of the General Hospital "St. George" in Plovdiv, the press center of the hospital reported on October 11.

The criterion for obesity is the body mass index, which is the ratio between height and weight. Overweight is considered when the body mass index in children over five years of age is between the 85th-97th percentile, and obesity is considered to be above the 97th percentile according to the World Health Organization standards for body mass assessment. For children under five, the weight-for-height ratio is assessed. According to the National Programme for the Prevention of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases 2021-2025, the prevalence of obesity among the active population in Bulgaria remains high. In people aged 30-59, 29 percent of men and 20 percent of women were obese, and in those aged 60-74, more than 29 percent of men and more than 35 percent of women were obese. Research shows that childhood obesity also has a high prevalence and will increase by 60 percent by 2030.

In the world, Bulgaria ranks 117th in population obesity - 140th for women, 71st for men and 79th for children, the medical establishment said.

"There are two main causes of childhood obesity and they are not related to an initial medical problem. First is the sedentary lifestyle and too much time spent by children in front of televisions and computers, and the second cause of obesity is the diet and easy access to high-calorie foods and foods rich in sugars. Highly obese children are at risk of 250 different diseases as adults. Obesity leads to insulin resistance, this may cause the onset of a pre-diabetic state and diabetes mellitus. The main risk of high-degree obesity is not only type 2 diabetes, but also cardiovascular disease," Dr Tsvetanova said.

The majority of patients attending outpatient paediatric endocrinology are obese children whose parents are unaware of the problem and deny excessive and indiscriminate eating. It is good to know that obese children with a hormonal cause are less than 10 percent. The rest put on weight from overeating, and obesity itself leads to a number of metabolic problems. For the most part, obese children are taller and prone to earlier puberty, but obese girls develop polycystic ovary syndrome, hence the recent increase in fertility problems.

Awareness of parents and patients about the problem and change in dietary and exercise lifestyle are essential for obesity treatment. Factors that affect the feeling of satiety, the state of the central nervous system and its disorders can also lead to the onset of obesity. In some cases, the patient may also be referred to psychological help for awareness of the problem and assistance in carrying out the prescribed treatment, the medical facility added.