Severe obesity in youth: health implications and treatment strategies

Childhood obesity is one of the most pressing health challenges. In recent years, the number of youth with obesity, especially those with severe obesity, is only increasing. This dissertation focused on youth with the most severe grade of obesity, as they suffer from tremendous physical and psychological consequences, and are often overlooked in clinical practice. The first part examined the consequences of the most severe grade of obesity in youth. This part also examined the effectiveness of the current cornerstone treatment, a multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention. For a subset of these adolescents, lifestyle interventions are insufficiently effective, and for this group additional treatment strategies are warranted. The second part of this thesis focused on optimizing treatment strategies for youth with severe obesity and explored the applicability of bariatric surgery.