HN: One-third of teenagers suffer from obesity

Prague, Feb 7 (CTK) - About one third of Czech teenage boys and one quarter of teenage girls suffer from obesity, a research in which obesity specialists examined the measurements, weight and nutrition of some 1500 children over a period of four years showed, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes yesterday.

The children also underwent detailed psychological, biochemical and hormonal tests, HN writes.

"We chose the 1500 children randomly from paediatric surgeries across the Czech Republic. We focused on the 13-18 year age category," HN quotes Vojtech Hainer, deputy director of the Endocrinological Institute in Prague, as saying.

"The number of teenagers with 'stomach obesity' where fat accumulates in the stomach is also alarming. Almost 9 percent of girls and 11 percent of boys suffer from it," Hainer said.

He said the period of adolescence is particularly important. "Those who are obese in this period usually remain obese in adult age as well. This need not be true for the pre-school age," Hainer said.

The treatment of obesity is costly. Stays at clinics and in spas, that are only a part of it, cost health insurance companies dozens of millions of crowns annually though they only contribute to the stays of children with a heavy form of obesity," HN writes.

"In 2010 our insurance company paid over five million crowns for the stay of 157 child patients in these facilities, last year we paid six million for 171 patients," HN quotes Hana Kadeckova, spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry's health insurance company, as saying.

That is why all health insurance companies focus on prevention. The largest health insurance company, VZP, spent 15 million crowns on it last year, HN writes.

In 2010 the Health Ministry established a special child section of the Czech Society for the Study of Obesity that is to create a network of centres with a focus on obese children, HN writes.

However, no one knows whether the steps the state and health insurance companies take are successful. That is why the Endocrinological Institute is now making an analysis of the effect of obese children's spa stays, the paper writes.

The number of obese children has been rising not only in the Czech Republic, but also in Britain, Poland and elsewhere in Europe.

The share of obese children was relatively low in the Czech Republic before 2000.

"Thanks to national surveys that were conducted every ten years from 1951 to 2001 we know that in 1951, for instance, 9.2 percent of girls and 11.3 percent of boys suffered from overweight. In 1991 the share was about 14 percent for both categories," HN quotes child obesity specialist Jitka Kytnarova as saying.

($1=19.152 crowns)