Background
The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently developing practice and science-informed, people-centred guidelines on the integrated management of adolescents 10 to 19 years of age with obesity using a primary health care approach.
WHO invites Member States, partners, and interested stakeholders to review and provide feedback on these draft guidelines.
Obesity management guidelines
The WHO defines adolescence as the period from 10 to 19 years of age. With a high prevalence of existing childhood obesity in many communities worldwide, effective measures for obesity management are essential to protect the health of adolescents during these formative and vulnerable periods of life (1, 2).
Obesity has important, negative effects on the physical and mental well-being, educational attainment and quality of life of adolescents (1,2,3). Adolescence is a unique stage of human development and an important time for laying the foundations of good health, when they experience rapid physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth. This affects how they feel, think, make decisions, and interact with the world around them (4).
Scope and purpose
These guidelines aim to provide Member States and their partners with adoptable and adaptable, clear, practice- and science-informed global clinical and public health recommendations on the integrated management and care of adolescents 10 to 19 years of age with obesity for improved health, functioning and reduced obesity-associated disability, using a primary health care approach. Recommendations are grounded in gender, equity and human rights, to ensure that no one is left behind.
The scope of this work is on primary health care-based interventions, including but not limited to diet therapy; physical activity, sleep hygiene and sedentary behaviours; behaviour changing interventions; multimodal interventions; digital health interventions; pharmacological interventions; and weight-control related surgery. Recommendations consider the perspective of the individual, the community, the multiple sectors involved and health systems.
The primary target audiences include decision-makers and public health policymakers in ministries of health and other offices at the national, sub-national and local levels. These guidelines are also aimed at health workers, including providers at the primary care level, integrated health programme managers, and health system managers. The recommendations are of interest to non-governmental and other organizations as well as professional societies involved in planning and managing interventions for adolescents with obesity, and other health and well-being actions. The guidelines can be used to inform the general public, as well as parents and caregivers of adolescents with obesity.
WHO welcomes feedback from:
- Member States, particularly national public health authorities involved in obesity management and programme implementation.
- Technical experts in nutrition, obesity, physical activity and fitness, anthropometry and body composition, endocrinology, adolescent health, public health, nutrition economics, risk communication, and health systems integration.
- Partners and stakeholders from multilateral agencies, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and implementing partners.
- Community and civil society representatives, especially those engaged in equity-focused delivery of health services or community engagement.
How to submit comments
WHO welcomes comments on the draft guidelines from 10 to 24 April 2026. Feedback will be used to refine and finalize the guidelines before their publication. During this period, you can provide input and submit edits by commenting and suggesting changes in the word version of the draft guidelines.
To access the draft guidelines please complete and sign the Declaration of interest and the Confidentiality Undertaking forms and also attach a current copy of your curriculum vitae. Please send these documents to obesity@who.int.
Once received, we will send you the document. Please treat this material as strictly confidential.
You can then enter your comments to the Word document and submit them to obesity@who.int with the subject line "Public comment submission – WHO guidelines on the integrated management of obesity in adolescents”.
Upon closure of this Call for Public Comment, all feedback will be reviewed by WHO and incorporated into the final document as appropriate.
References
- Taking action on childhood obesity. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2018 (https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/274792). Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
- Obesity and overweight key facts. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025 ( https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight, accessed 7 Apr 2025).
- Report of the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2016 (https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/204176).
- Seventy-Second World Health Assembly Provisional agenda item 11.5: Primary health care towards universal health coverage. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019 (https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA72/A72_12-en.pdf).