Childhood Obesity: Prevention and Treatment

2nd ed, edited by J Parizkova and AP Hills, 2005, 522 pages, hardcover, $99.95. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.

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Childhood obesity appears to be increasing rapidly in the developed world. Furthermore, several recent studies suggest that the developing world now confronts the dual challenge of combating chronic undernutrition, characterized by short stature, and overnutrition, reflected by a high weight-for-height, in the same persons. The second edition of Childhood Obesity: Prevention and Treatment therefore addresses a growing worldwide problem. An important strength of this book is its comprehensive reference section. The 10 000 publications cited in the reference section provide an extraordinarily useful compendium of the childhood obesity literature as well as a startling example of how extensive and popular this topic has become. The book also benefits from a consistent language and style, which results when a book is coauthored rather than written by several authors.

As expected, the sections of the book that reflect the authors' expertise in body composition, physical activity, and fitness provide comprehensive reviews and summaries of these areas. Areas with which the authors are less familiar are sometimes reviewed and summarized without a critical perspective. For example, self-reported food intake data that suggest energy intakes of overweight children that are comparable with or lower than those of nonoverweight children conflict with the increased energy expenditure observed among overweight children and adolescents in doubly labeled water studies. This disparity and several others like it are not addressed.

The book also provides a reasonable review of the elements necessary for the effective treatment of obesity. A review of the behavioral strategies necessary to make treatment effective and how these strategies can be implemented in a primary care setting would have made this book more useful to primary care providers. In addition, given the prevalence of childhood obesity and the rate at which this problem is increasing, both a clinical and a public health perspective on obesity prevention would have been useful. Nonetheless, because few books offer such a voluminous compilation of the childhood obesity literature, this book is a welcome addition to the libraries of academicians in this field.