New research being presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Venice, Italy (12-15 May) has for the first time quantified the impact of different aspects of childhood obesity on long-term health and life expectancy.

The modeling by stradoo GmbH, a life sciences consultancy in Munich, Germany, presented by Dr. Urs Wiedemann, of stradoo, and colleagues at universities and hospitals in the UK, Netherlands, France, Sweden, Spain, U.S. and Germany, found that age of onset, severity and duration of obesity all take their toll on life expectancy.

The development of obesity at a very young age was found to have a particularly profound effect.

For example, a child living with severe obesity (BMI Z-score of 3.5) at the age of four, who doesn’t subsequently lose weight, has a life expectancy of 39 years—about half of the average life expectancy.