Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 25: A two-day virtual workshop on the topic “Impact of COVID-19 on obesity and diabetes in Asia-Pacific Region” concluded with keynote address of Dr Rekha Harish (former Professor and HoD Paediatrics Department, GMC Jammu).
The workshop was organized by NCD Child (a global multi-stakeholder coalition, championing the rights and needs of children, adolescents and young people living with or at risk of developing Non-communicable diseases), in partnership with the Asia-Pacific Pediatric Association (APPA) and Caring and Living as Neighbours (CLAN).
The purpose of this workshop was to provide an opportunity for individuals in the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen their advocacy and leadership skills, and collaborate on strategies to keep young people living with obesity and/or diabetes safe during COVID-19. The first day of the workshop was dedicated for diabetes and the second day for obesity in children.
The keynote speaker on second day was Dr Rekha Harish (ex-HoD Pediatrics GMC Jammu, ex-vice president NZ IAP (Indian Academy of Pediatrics) and National Chairperson of Non communicable Diseases Prevention Academy (NCDPA), a subspecialty chapter of IAP Member Technical Advisory NCD Group APPA.
In her address, she described the need for renaming the term as Globesity as the issue has not left any part of the world unaffected and is a major challenge for developing countries now where the rate of rise of obesity is more than 30% higher than in the developed countries. She described the mileau of today’s child who is a victim of the 3 environments in which he is brought up-the home, school and community.
“The current pandemic has affected all the three environments and taken the situation to alarming levels. Obesity has especially risen markedly in the age group of 5 to 9 years (2.6%) as compared to 1% of the adolescent age group during the pandemic,” she said. She said as treatment of obesity is quite difficult, costly and time consuming, we need to concentrate on five pillars of prevention of obesity viz. healthy eating behaviours, physical activity, limiting screen time, sleep hygiene and avoiding tobacco.
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