In the Netherlands we have about 450.000 children with overweight, of whom approximately 75.000 have obesity or severe obesity. These numbers have risen sharply over the past decades, particularly among children from lower socioeconomic groups, and this increases health inequalities.
Overweight, and notably obesity, can lead to serious physical and psychosocial problems. This is why children with overweight or obesity should be provided appropriate support and care. Major progress has been made in the Netherlands over the past years in this respect.
But we are not there yet, which is why we at VU Amsterdam are working on increasing the knowledge on the support and care for children with obesity and children at high risk of developing obesity. Since 2013 we have been doing this in the Care for Obesity project. We aim for an intensive collaboration between research, policy and practice including involvement of children and parents. This enables us to contribute to a better match between the offered support and care, and the needs of the children and families concerned and their care professionals.