Childhood obesity is associated with health complications, including elevated blood pressure, hyperinsulinaemia and glucose intolerance, and respiratory abnormalities. The effects of childhood obesity on morbidity and mortality suggest that effective prevention and intervention for childhood obesity is essential. In most obesity treatments, reduction of caloric intake is the most significant contribution to negative energy balance. Increased physical activity, however, also contributes, and may accelerate weight loss and improve maintenance of lost weight. Children have a right to treatment for their obesity no matter how difficult it is to engage them or their parents in treatment. Parents and obese children should be clear that the child has a lifelong predisposition to obesity. More research is planned to investigate whether weight regain can be prevented if the treatment programme is followed by individualized booster sessions in which the children learn maintenance strategies or relapse prevention techniques.

Preventive as compared to treatment interventions should be considered in terms of the evidence of their effectiveness in achieving relevant outcomes. Preventive interventions can be focused on those symptoms or syndromes that start in childhood and persist into adulthood. There are significant numbers of randomized controlled trials providing evidence for the effectiveness of prevention and the need for a prevention approach for a group of conditions. It must be emphasized that generic interventions that modify parental discord and enhance parenting skills probably decrease vulnerability to depression, as do interventions that prevent abuse. Curriculum-based programs and more specific programs for early intervention and prevention of depression and related disorders can be used in school. Thus, the unmet need for prevention, as compared to treatment, interventions is established. Effective prevention should, in turn, lessen the burden of mental disorders in adults.