Childhood overweight and obesity undermine health in almost all European countries. As many as 29% of children between the ages of 7 and 9 are overweight (including obesity), with wide variances between nations, ranging from 6% in Tajikistan to 43% in Cyprus. Despite recent efforts by organizations and scientific groups to ameliorate the problem, Italy ranks fourth for overweight and childhood obesity, behind only Cyprus, Greece, and Spain. If we only evaluate the prevalence of obesity (excluding overweight) in the same age range, our country ranks second. This is the image that displays the data from the World Health Organization's European Office's latest study "COSI" (Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative). The new report's conclusions are based on the most recent data collected in 33 WHO European Region countries between 2018 and 2020. Nearly 411,000 children aged 6 to 9 were tracked in total.
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