Tackling childhood obesity by mobilizing society towards prevention

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Research Theme Summary

The workshop focused on childhood obesity, a growing public health concern in Chile and Sweden, where different prevention strategies have been implemented. Despite more than a decade of working with such approaches, childhood obesity rates continue to rise, especially in Chile. This Forum brought together experts from health, biology, social sciences, and economics to discuss novel approaches. Through interdisciplinary presentations, participants analyzed community‑based prevention strategies, environmental and socioeconomic influences on children’s health, and data‑driven mapping of food environments. The goal was to identify how more effective, equitable, and sustainable solutions can be developed to reduce childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity poses a public health challenge in both Chile and Sweden. Recent data show obesity affects nearly 27% of Chilean children aged 4–14 and about 11% of Swedish children. Rising rates, despite prevention efforts, highlight need for evidence based, and effective prevention approaches to support healthier childhood environments.

PIs

 

Marcela Katherine Sjöberg Herrera, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Peter Bergsten, Uppsala University

 

Participants

 

Carlos Guerrero Bosagna, Uppsala Universitet

Matz Dahlberg, Uppsala Universitet

Erik Grönqvist, Uppsala Universitet

 
 

Banu Aydin, Uppsala Universitet

Fernando R. González Moraga, Lund Universitet

Claudio Perez Leighton, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

 
 

Victor Cortés, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Maria Jesús Vega Salas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Nicolas Aguilar Farias, Universidad de la Frontera

 
 

Erick Riquelme, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Gislaine Granfeldt Molina, Universidad de Concepción

Maria Teresa Muñoz Quezada, Universidad de Chile

 

Outcomes

The workshop contrasted approaches to childhood obesity in Chile and Sweden, offering complementary lessons for prevention. Chile’s strong regulatory strategy—including taxes on sugary drinks, front‑of‑package warning labels, marketing restrictions, and school food regulations—has achieved limited reductions in obesity prevalence. Sweden, by contrast, emphasizes health promotion through universal child health services- school‑based education and lunches, physical‑activity‑supportive environments, and nutrition guidelines-resulting in possibly attenuating the rise in childhood obesity rates. From an economic perspective, discussions emphasized that population‑wide interventions need to be effective at low‑cost, while more resource‑intensive individually targeted measures need to be carefully developed using both socioeconomic indicators and biomarkers. A key insight was the importance of geographic and neighbourhood inequalities in health. A Swedish “health atlas” was presented as a way to map environments and identify areas of need, generate hypotheses, and support evidence‑based policymaking. The workshop also highlighted the need to integrate basic sciences with robust study designs to develop sustainable interventions and to assess the long‑term implications of newly available medical treatments.