Styria records most child obesity diagnoses in Austria

Styria recorded more obesity diagnoses among children and adolescents in 2025 than any other Austrian state, ORF reports. Health professionals are responding with nutrition counselling, more exercise and psychological support.

The number of children and adolescents with a documented obesity diagnosis at the Austrian Health Insurance Fund rose from 775 to 1,415 in two years. Reinhold Kerbl, head of paediatrics and adolescent medicine at the Hochsteiermark Regional Hospital, said the increase did not mean obesity was rising dramatically: cases were now being recorded and treated more often. He added that school records of obesity remained inadequate.

Kerbl said 20 to 30 per cent of children in Styria were overweight. The figure had remained relatively steady at a high level, with a slight rather than steep upward trend, he said. Austria ranked in the lower middle of European comparisons, and Kerbl said too little had been done to promote physical activity. He called for a daily exercise session in schools.

Weight-loss injections may be considered for selected children with obesity if other measures have not worked. Maria Fritsch, a diet and hormone specialist at the paediatric clinic of Graz Regional Hospital, said the treatment could be used as an additional therapy if a programme had produced no change after six months.

Fritsch said the injections were not a cure-all. The preferred approach for children and adolescents was nutrition counselling, increased physical activity and psychological support, provided through rehabilitation or outpatient therapy.