F. Van Gaal Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Antwerp University Hospital Edegem, Belgium
Tim Gill Boden Initiative Charles Perkins Centre University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Ronald R. Grunstein Sleep and Circadian Research Group (CIRUS) Woolcock Institute of Medical Research University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and Centre for Respiratory Failure and Sleep Disorders Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Catherine Hankey University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Jenna Hollis The University of Newcastle Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia and Hunter Medical Research Institute Lambton, New South Wales, Australia and Hunter New England Population Health Wallsend, New South Wales, Australia
Christina M. Hopkins Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Duke University Durham, NC, USA
Peter Hovmand Center for Community Health Integration Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH, USA
Lindsay M. Jaacks Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security The University of Edinburgh Roslin, UK
W. Philip T. James Department of Population Health London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London, UK
Fredrik Karpe Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism University of Oxford Oxford, UK
Peter G. Kopelman University of London London, UK
Bo Kyung Koo Department of Internal Medicine Seoul National University College of Medicine Seoul, Korea and Department of Internal Medicine Seoul Metropolitan Government ‐ Seoul National University (SMG‐SNU) Boramae Medical Center Seoul, Korea
Soo Lim Department of Internal Medicine Seoul National University College of Medicine Seoul, Korea and Department of Internal Medicine Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Seoul, Korea
Tim Lobstein Boden Initiative Charles Perkins Centre University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and The World Obesity Federation London, UK
David Martin Concord Repatriation General Royal Prince Alfred and Strathfield Private Hospitals Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Emily Oken Department of Population Medicine Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute Boston, MA, USA and Department of Nutrition Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA, USA
Susan E. Ozanne University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories and MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit Wellcome‐MRC Institute of Metabolic Science Cambridge, UK
Jean‐Michel Oppert Department of Nutrition Sorbonne University Pitié‐Salpêtrière Hospital (AP‐HP) Center for Research on Human Nutrition Ile‐de‐France Paris, France and Nutritional Epidemiology Research Unit (EREN) Inserm/Inrae/Cnam/Sorbonne Paris Nord University Bobigny, France
Rebecca L. Pearl Department of Clinical and Health Psychology University of Florida Gainesville, FL, USA and Department of Psychiatry Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA, USA
Kerry M. Quigley Department of Psychiatry Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA, USA
David Raubenheimer Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences The University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Yann Ravussin Faculty of Science and Medicine Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Cardiovascular System University of Fribourg Fribourg, Switzerland
Naveed Sattar Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences BHF Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre University of Glasgow Glasgow, UK
Kyra Sim Metabolism & Obesity Services Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
Stephen J. Simpson Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences The University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Michael R. Skilton Boden Initiative Charles Perkins Centre University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and Sydney Medical School Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and Sydney Institute for Women, Children and their Families Sydney Local Health District Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Arianne N. Sweeting Boden Initiative Charles Perkins Centre University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Boyd Swinburn School of Population Health University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand and GLOBE (Global Obesity Centre) Deakin University Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Mishel Unar‐Munguia Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública Cuernavaca, Mexico
Lesly Véjar Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública Cuernavaca, Mexico
Ann Verhaegen Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Antwerp University Hospital Edegem, Belgium
Thomas A. Wadden Department of Psychiatry Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA, USA
Wilma Waterlander Department of Public and Occupational Health Amsterdam UMC University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Mariel White Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública Cuernavaca, Mexico
John P.H. Wilding Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Aintree University Hospital Liverpool, UK and Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences University of Liverpool Aintree University Hospital Liverpool, UK
Brendon J. Yee Sleep and Circadian Research Group (CIRUS) Woolcock Institute of Medical Research University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and Centre for Respiratory Failure and Sleep Disorders Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Preface
Clinical Obesity in Adults and Children originated in 1998 from the Editors’ perception of a need for a textbook on obesity which emphasized obesity as a disease entity by reviewing the scientific basis and addressing the clinical and practical aspects of the condition. The introduction concluded that obesity management and research had reached a watershed at the end of the century, given the increasing concerns about the problem for future generations. As we enter the third decade of the new century, such concerns have not only materialized but have been exceeded.
The fourth edition of Clinical Obesity has been written during a pandemic caused by the SARs-CoV- 2 coronavirus. Many contributing authors were actively engaged in the frontline of health care treating patients suffering from this virulent virus. The additional morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 infections associated with excess body weight have emphasized the urgent need for the effective prevention and treatment of obesity.
In the context of a pandemic, this new edition of Clinical Obesity concludes with a timely chapter on the global syndemic. The notion of a syndemic was first conceived by Merrill Singer, a medical anthropologist, in the 1990s. Writing in The Lancet in 2017, Singer argued that a syndemic perspective reveals biological and social interactions that are important for prognosis, treatment, and health policy. A syndemic