Dairy Consumption and Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents: a Meta-analysis.

According to statistics from the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), taking into account the definition of overweight and obesity recommended by the International Obesity Task Fort (IOTF), the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) in European children aged 7 to 17 years is 16-22% and the prevalence of obesity is 4-6%. Some review studies3 and meta-analysis4,5 have reported an inverse relationship between dairy products consumption and the prevalence or incidence of overweight and obesity. However, some methodological issues arise from these analyses. For instance, the combination of studies with different exposures (e.g. full fat milk, total milk) in the total dairy product analysis. Moreover, since the publication of the lasts meta-analysis in 2016, new epidemiological studies evaluating the association between dairy product consumption and overweight or obesity risk have been published. Objective The aim of this work is to systematically review and assess the associations between total dairy consumption and its different subtypes with the prevalence and incidence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents.