Proceedings of the Second Pan American Conference on Obesity with special attention to childhood obesity and a workshop, 'Education for childhood obesity prevention: A life-course approach'

Abstract

The first Pan American Conference on Obesity (PACO I) was held in Aruba in June 2011 and was attended by a wide variety of professionals including scientists, clinicians, Ministers of Health and other government officials from a number of Caribbean, Latin American and North American countries. The conference focused on childhood obesity and the participants discussed public health policies that addressed the problem of childhood obesity. These included multi-level, comprehensive strategies to address childhood obesity based on three principles: (a) that primordial and primary prevention with a life-course approach should be the central component of national programs to stop the obesity epidemic, (b) that the multi-level focus should be working across all sectors to modify the 'obesogenic' environment that facilitates a positive energy balance and excess weight gain and (c) that developing self-care skills, meaning actions taken by the individual to protect and promote their health and the health of their children, is imperative. At the same time, it was acknowledged that the 'obesogenic' environment shows wide variability across countries, and therefore any concerted regional action plan must allow for flexibility and adaptation to each local situation. Finally, education was identified as a critical component for the promotion of health and the prevention of childhood obesity.