The investigation of the prevalence of obesity in adolescents in Greece: a literature review

Abstract

Obesity is a complex problem that threatens all humanity regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, economic and social situation and the need for treatment and prevention is imperative. The increasing obesity in adolescents constitutes a worrying situation, given that obese adolescents tend to become obese adults and also is a major global public health problem. Unfortunately the last few decades in our country, the food choices of the teenagers who have turned from “traditional or Mediterranean” type corresponding to the “Western” type, and which have led to increased incidence of obesity have been the subject of several research study documenting high obesity rate in Greek teenage population, either at the national level or in individual geographical areas. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of obesity among adolescents in Greece through the modern literature review.

Keywords

• Αdolescents
• body mass index
• obesity
• overweight