Childhood Overweight and Obesity Trends in Developing Countries
Summary
Over the past two decades, developing countries have witnessed a marked rise in childhood overweight and obesity alongside persistent undernutrition, constituting a double burden of malnutrition. Urbanisation, economic growth and shifts towards processed, energy-dense diets have driven this trend across diverse regions from Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to Latin America. Within urban and peri-urban settings, children are exposed to increased availability of high-calorie foods, reduced physical activity and sociocultural changes in feeding practices. Socioeconomic disparities further influence dietary quality and access to recreational spaces, producing heterogeneous patterns within and between nations. Surveillance data indicate that prevalence rates among preschool and school-age children have more than doubled in some settings, with boys often affected more than girls. Nutrition transitions are marked by rising consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, processed snacks and animal-source foods, while traditional staples decline. Parental body mass index, birth weight and household income emerge as key correlates. The global significance of this trend lies in its long-term implications for cardiometabolic health, educational attainment and economic productivity. Effective interventions encompass early childhood nutrition education, policy measures to improve food environments, promotion of physical activity and community-based programmes tailored to urban and rural contexts. Addressing this complex challenge requires coordinated action across health, agriculture and urban planning sectors to stem the rising tide of childhood obesity in developing economies.
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Childhood Overweight and Obesity Trends in Developing Countries publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in childhood overweight and obesity trends in developing countries across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Body mass index (BMI): A ratio of an individual’s weight to the square of their height, used to classify underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity.
Nutrition transition: The shift from traditional diets towards higher consumption of processed, energy-dense foods and lower levels of physical activity associated with economic development.
Prevalence: The proportion of a population affected by a condition at a specific point in time.
Incidence: The rate at which new cases of a condition occur in a population over a defined period.
References
- Early childhood factors associated with obesity at age 8 in Vietnamese children: The Young Lives Cohort Study. BMC Public Health (2021).
- Child Overweight or Obesity Is Associated with Modifiable and Geographic Factors in Vietnam: Implications for Program Design and Targeting. Nutrients (2020).
- Prevalence and incidence of overweight and obesity among Vietnamese preschool children: a longitudinal cohort study. BMC Pediatrics (2017).
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