Do we suffer from obesity more and more young? Recent studies seem to show that Covid-19 and confinement have had a strong impact on the increase in overweight in children. With consequences on their physical abilities, but also, and above all, on health and life expectancy. While between 2000 and 2020, France had resisted the phenomenon of early overweight better than other countries such as England, Italy, Greece or even Germany, it seems, this time, to drop out. .
A few days ago, a study carried out by the collective “Pour une France en forme” (a group of doctors and experts formed in 2019) and conducted with more than 9,000 middle school students in 6th grade, alerted to the decline in their physical abilities, leading to an increase in obesity and diabetes. Thus, children, evaluated by the VMA (maximum aerobic speed), run slower, at 10.2 km/h, than a population of the same age, more than thirty years ago. “We have to face the facts, we are facing a societal tsunami of physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle”, assures cardiologist François Carré, who led this study. The latter nevertheless remains optimistic: “The trend is reversible provided that activity is reintroduced into the daily lives of students. “.
“The Covid-19 effect was a disaster”
For Professor Philippe Froguel, director of the Egid, a diabetes research institute, based in Lille, in the North, the problem goes beyond sports performance: “health and life expectancy are at stake.” Obesity very often leads to diabetes problems, cardiovascular or cancer risks are all the greater. “And appear earlier and earlier, around 45-50 years old,” worries Philippe Froguel.
Since the start of the 2021 academic year, Professor Froguel’s teams have also been carrying out a study, baptized Elipse, to identify overweight in 2,000 children aged 6 to 10, in schools in Lille. The objective is to improve well-being by offering overweight children the opportunity to participate in a personalized educational program.
The first results are worrying. Of the first 800 or so children followed, almost a third presented severe weight problems and 10% were already in a situation of real obesity. “The Covid-19 effect was a disaster, underlines Philippe Froguel. We did not expect such a result. And this increase in obesity is found primarily among the poorest families. This link between poverty and obesity is a less surprising observation since it had already been drawn up in 2010 by Jacques Weill, a doctor from Lille. “.
The objective of Professor Froguel’s team is now to try to understand the phenomenon. “We must try to find the environmental causes, but also genetic,” he says. The problem today is a sedentary lifestyle and poor stress management. The children eat too much and the fridge cannot be locked. »
The researcher also points to another difficulty: denial. “Families refuse to face the problem and doctors are not convinced of the need to treat it from an early age. However, 30% of obese adults began their obesity when they were children or teenagers. »
European study to prevent obesity
And to quote a small public health revolution in the United States. “A few days ago, American pediatricians encouraged the management of obesity from the age of 13. You should know that in the United States, the stagnation of life expectancy is mainly linked to this disease, “said Philippe Froguel.
In Europe, a child obesity prevention project, called Obelisk, will also see the light of day from 1 April. Also piloted in part by Professor Froguel’s team, Obelisk will concern nine countries and several thousand children. Each country will work on a specific age group, from the first 1,000 days to adolescence. “In Italy, for example, the project revolves around hip-hop for teens,” notes the researcher from Lille.
The good news is that the study may also rely on a new repositioned drug. “We realized that semaglutin, used to treat diabetes, also made you lose weight,” he explains. Popularized on TikTok, it quickly found itself out of stock. “For the purposes of our studies, I think that the laboratories will be able to provide us with it”, smiles Philippe Froguel. The fight against obesity is at this price.