Childhood Obesity Allegedly Linked to Blindness

A recent study has reportedly claimed that children who are overweight or
obese “are more likely to have a neurological disease known as idiopathic
intracranial hypertension [IIH], a rare condition that can result in blindness.”
Sonu Brara, et al., “Pediatric Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension and Extreme
Childhood Obesity,” Journal of Pediatrics, May 2012. Researchers apparently
analyzed data from 900,000 participants in the Kaiser Permanente Southern
California (KPSC) Children’s Health Study, concluding that 57 (73.1 percent) of
the 78 KSPC children and adolescents diagnosed with IIH were overweight or
obese. These children were also more likely to be age 11 or older at diagnosis
as well as white, non-Hispanic and female.

“Consistent with two previous studies, we found that female sex and obesity first emerge as strong IIH risk factors in postpubertal age children,” reported the study’s authors. “Extremely obese adolescents were 16 times more likely than normal weight children to have IIH whereas moderately obese or overweight children were only 3.5-6 times more likely to have IIH, respectively… These findings are novel and suggest that the risk of IIH is highest among overweight/obese White non-Hispanic teenage girls. Our findings also suggest that careful screening of these at risk individuals for headaches, blurred vision, and eye movement abnormalities may lead to earlier detection and, thus, opportunity for treatment to prevent vision loss.”