University of Glasgow

Academic Institute

B3876

Obesity is one of the most pressing public health challenges worldwide. It is caused by multifactorial causes and could lead to increased risk of cardiometabolic disease. Although obesity is not as common in children as adults currently, the temporal increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity is greater than that of adulthood obesity in multiple countries. However, current public health measures are mostly focused on adult obesity and may not translate to children.

Current studies on childhood obesity often lack prospectively collected, serial measurements over infancy and childhood, and are mostly cross-sectional or case-control studies. This could lead to substantial reporting or recall bias. Besides, considering the lack of research around the individual and collective roles of upstream and downstream factors, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies are urgently needed to systematically identify intervention/prevention targets for childhood obesity. Moreover, epidemiological studies on the early-life obesogenic effects of environmental exposures have almost exclusively evaluated the risks of single exposures, except for a few multipollutant studies that included chemicals from three or four different exposure groups. Obesity is recognised as a chronic condition that requires a comprehensive programme of complementary interventions. There has been a shift from simple weight loss interventions to holistic management of obesity-related complications. The findings from this PhD project could inform obesity prevention/interventions from early life, which could provide an important change to manage this important public health issue.

28/09/2021