New Guidelines for Managing Obesity in Children: CMAJ

A new guideline to help health care providers manage obesity in children and adolescents takes a patient-centred approach, emphasizing behavioural and psychological supports that focus on outcomes valued by patients and their families. The guideline based on the latest evidence, is published in Canadian Medical Association Journal.

It was developed by Obesity Canada through an extensive, 4-year-long collaboration involving adolescents and caregivers with lived obesity experience, methodologists, health care providers, and more than 50 multidisciplinary experts.

These outcomes include quality of life, mental health, related cardiovascular risk factors, avoiding harms, and more.

Pediatric obesity is a complex, chronic, progressive, and stigmatized condition that increases risk for more than 200 health conditions. International data indicate that severe obesity appears to be on the rise globally.

The guideline contains 10 recommendations, including guidance on nutritional, physical activity, psychological, and technology interventions, and medications and surgical options, as well as 9 good practice statements. The authors recommend combining at least 2 options to help manage obesity.

“The guideline is designed to support shared and informed clinical decision-making rooted in systematic, interpretable summaries of scientific evidence,” said Dr. Bradley Johnston, associate professor of nutrition and health research methods and co-chair of the guideline development committee. “To achieve that, we devised a transparent process to assess the totality of scientific evidence for relevant interventions to manage pediatric obesity, while prioritizing outcomes that matter the most to children, adolescents, and their families.”

Reference: Managing obesity in children: a clinical practice guideline

Geoff D.C. Ball, Roah Merdad, Catherine S. Birken, Tamara R. Cohen, Brenndon Goodman, Stasia Hadjiyannakis, Jill Hamilton, Mélanie Henderson, John Lammey, Katherine M. Morrison, Sarah A. Moore, Aislin R. Mushquash, Ian Patton, Nicole Pearce, Joshua K. Ramjist, Tracy Rhyason Lebel, Brian W. Timmons, Annick Buchholz, Jennifer Cantwell, Jennifer Cooper, Julius Erdstein, Donna Fitzpatrick-Lewis, Dawn Hatanaka, Patrice Lindsay, Tasneem Sajwani, Meghan Sebastianski, Diana Sherifali, Julie St. Pierre, Muhammad Usman Ali, Jessica Wijesundera, Angela S. Alberga, Christine Ausman, Trisha C. Baluyot, Emily Burke, Kara Dadgostar, Bronwyn Delacruz, Elizabeth Dettmer, Maegan Dymarski, Zahra Esmaeilinezhad, Ilona Hale, Soren Harnois-Leblanc, Josephine Ho, Nicole D. Gehring, Marsha Kucera, Jacob C. Langer, Amy C. McPherson, Leen Naji, Krista Oei, Grace O’Malley, Angelica M. Rigsby, Gita Wahi, Ian S. Zenlea, Bradley C. Johnston

CMAJ Apr 2025, 197 (14) E372-E389; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.241456