GPs have to get over their awkwardness when it comes to bringing up the topic of childhood obesity with patients and their families, a Dublin GP has said.

However, according to Dr John Latham, while many GPs continue to feel uncomfortable about raising this topic during consultations, patients and their families also have difficulties hearing it.

"In my own experience, I have witnessed a verbal complaint from parents because a conscientious GP addressed the abnormally high BMI (body mass index) of their young child during a consultation about something else," he said.

As a result of reactions like these, he insisted that it is ‘no wonder' that some GPs are slow to raise this topic.

However, this is a subject that must be raised as overweight and obesity are linked to conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and certain types of cancer.

Dr Latham noted that a study published earlier this year in The Lancet medical journal, of worldwide and national prevalence of overweight and obesity between 1980 and 2013, showed that 26% of Irish girls up to the age of 20 are overweight or obese. The figure for boys is 16%.

"These figures are above the European average and shockingly, the study reports that 66% of Irish men above 20 are overweight or obese and the statistic for Irish women is 51%," he commented.

Dr Latham said that for GPs, ‘it is timely to broach the difficulties and awkwardness surrounding the subject of overweight and obesity'. However patients and their parents also have to face up to the difficulties associated with hearing this news.

He made his comments in Forum, the Journal of the Irish College of General Practitioners.

For more on recent Irish research in this area, see 'Kids' weight not being checked by GPs' here