Childhood obesity has a genetic component

An international collaboration of researchers have found that common childhood obesity could have a genetic component, which differs from the long-standing belief that weight gain was purely down to lifestyle.

Using genome-wide association techniques, the researchers found that there were many genetic variants associated with adult obesity which are also present in childhood obesity. Struan Grant of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and colleagues also reported two new genetic variants in Nature Genetics.

Grant told MedPage Today that "there is indeed a genetic signature of childhood obesity", suggesting that it is "not purely lifestyle". However, the findings also show that human genetics have not changed in the past few decades, whereas childhood obesity rates have gone up. This shows that it could be a combination of genetics and bad food that leads to weight gain.

Keith-Thomas Ayoob of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, who was not part of the study, said in an email to ABC News/MedPage Today: "We may know more about childhood obesity, but until there's a magic bullet, the treatment will be the same.

"Kids still need to have better diets and they really need to be more active."

Posted by Fiona Griffiths