The World Health Organization's first guidelines on obesity in younger children recommend diet, exercise and counselling, and say drugs should be considered for adolescents only after other care fails.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday recommended diet, exercise and counselling ahead of weight-loss drugs in its first global guidelines on obesity among younger children. Reuters reported the release.
The agency said drugs may be considered for adolescents aged 10 to 19 with obesity only after supervised interventions have failed. Bariatric surgery could be considered for physically and mentally mature adolescents with severe obesity after six months of unsuccessful treatment. For children under 10, it endorsed diet, activity and behavioural support rather than medication, surgery or devices.
Luz María De Regil, director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, said evidence on GLP-1 drugs is insufficient for now, though the agency is watching trials. She said the foundation of care is access to support for healthy eating, activity and behaviour change, not medicine or surgery.
WHO said about 400 million people aged 5 to 19 were overweight in 2024, including 170 million living with obesity, and that obesity prevalence in the group has quadrupled since 1990. It cited UNICEF data that obesity has surpassed underweight as the most common form of malnutrition in school-age children and adolescents.
Some GLP-1 medicines are already approved for certain adolescents. Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Saxenda can be used by some patients 12 and older in the United States and the European Union, and the EU also allows Saxenda for some children aged six to 11. The guideline does not withdraw those approvals.
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- Luz María De Regil said the foundation of obesity care for children is support for healthy eating and activity, not medicine or surgery.
- De Regil said evidence on GLP-1 drugs in this age group is currently insufficient.