Obesity, today recognized as a chronic disease, has shown an alarming increase in prevalence and related complications over the last 50 years. In parallel, the scientific community has made substantial progress to better understand obesity and its biology, to characterize the individual risk patterns of patients living with obesity, and to better prevent and treat obesity as a chronic disease and its associated complications. For the last 32 years, the European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG), as the only international society entirely dedicated to the prevention, treatment, and research in pediatric obesity, has been actively working to support and assist healthcare professionals, relevant stakeholders, families, and patients. By ensuring its presence through annual meetings in every region of Europe, developing and publishing position stands and recommendations, organizing webinars dedicated to essential and hot topics, giving voice to both scientists, practitioners, and associations of patients, ECOG is completely devoted to the translation of research into daily practice. Its continuous activity over the last 3 decades has clearly positioned ECOG as a key international actor that counts and encourages joint initiatives. This is exemplified by a recent statement highlighting the necessity to encourage the use of people-first language in the context of pediatric obesity, gathering for the first time all the main European and international organizations and societies dedicated to pediatrics and/or obesity [1].
The 32nd ECOG congress (Albena, Bulgaria, September 2023) will once more illustrate the dynamism and engagement of our society in gathering international actors (with co-chaired sessions with eminent societies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Association for the Study of Obesity Childhood Obesity Task Force (EASO-COTF), the Obesity Society (TOS), the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN), the European Society of Pediatric Endocrinology (ESPE), helping patients and families to raise their voice (in collaboration with the European Coalition for People Living with Obesity (ECPO)), targeting hot topics including a workshop dedicated to anti-obesity medications as part of multidisciplinary pediatric interventions, led by top international experts in the field [2]. The European Childhood Obesity Group, its board, and its members continue to strive to translate research into daily practice in order to improve obesity prevention and treatment for our children and adolescents.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Funding Sources
There is no source of funding for this editorial.
Author Contributions
T.D. and W.D. wrote the first draft, and all the authors equally contributed to its review and edition.