The European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG) is a pan-European association of professionals dealing with childhood obesity and overweight. ECOG brings together experts from a diversity of disciplines, ranging from paediatricians, psychologists, nutritionists, geneticists, physical activity experts, economists, and more – all united by an unwavering commitment to the study and prevention of childhood obesity.
Our Mission
Promote research and evidence-based approaches.
Advocate for better awareness and policies to prevent childhood obesity in Europe.
Facilitate and promote knowledge exchange in the field of childhood obesity.
ECOG was founded in 1991 with the mission of helping the European community to fully understand the health, social, psychological and economic impacts of childhood obesity.
The associations’ beginnings date back to 1988, when Belgian paediatrician Walter Burniat wrote to British paediatrician Elizabeth Poskitt, suggesting that they meet at the First European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Stockholm and discuss the lack of knowledge and dedicated advocacy and initiatives focused on childhood obesity specifically. The concept slowly evolved over a series of meetings in the following years, until the first ECOG workshop was organized in Brussels in 1991.
It was during this workshop that it became evident that there was no common definition of obesity in children, and that existing definitions relying on BMI alone were inadequate – giving way to the elaboration of an international definition of childhood obesity (Poskitt EME. 1995. Defining childhood obesity: The relative body mass index. European Childhood Obesity Group. Acta Paediatrica 84; 961-3).
Since then, ECOG has grown steadily, boasting increasing partnerships and involvement in European projects and a flagship congress that gathers hundreds of experts in the field each year.
The Team
Caroline Braet is Full Professor em. at Ghent University (Belgium). She obtained an MD in Psychology. Afterwards, she obtained two Postgraduate Specialisations (in Developmental Psychology in 1987 and in Cognitive Behavior Therapy in 1990) and her PhD in Psychology in 1993. For more then 10 years she was Head of the Department (2011-2024). Since 1984 she gives seminars and conducts research (together with PhD students) in particular on the development of childhood obesity and eating disorders, subtyping, the role of the parents, its prevention and treatment and the related psychological problems associated with the problem of overweight in children. Since 1993, she is consultant for different clinics, like the Ghent University Hospital (1985-2005) and the Medical Pediatric Obesity Center in De Haan (Belgium).
Susanne Ring is Full Professor of Sport Science: Exercise and Health at the University of Salzburg (Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, Department of Sport and Exercise Science). She is Head of the Division of Food-Movement-Health, Head of the University 3rd Age 55-plus, and Study Dean of the Teaching Commission FMH. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of exercise programs on cardiometabolic fitness, motor development and metabolic health in children and adults. She studies the health-enhancing exercise dose (“trainability”) and develops testing methods, such as lactate and ventilatory thresholds and fundamental movement skills. Her work has shown that certain gene variants (PGC-1a) can prevent the training effect. Field studies have shown that motor fitness can be significantly improved with a community-oriented core program in preschool (SALTO) and with technology-guided long-term programs (Fit-mit-Ilse). She also analyses indicators of participation in health-oriented physical activity and exercise training. She is currently developing R-SKAD, the Salzburg Childhood Obesity Dashboard, a tool for informed decision-making to prevent childhood obesity at community level. She has authored 204 publications
Agnieszka Zachurzok, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor at the Department of Paediatrics, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, and Head of the Division of Paediatric Endocrinology at the University Hospital in Zabrze (Poland). She is a paediatrician and paediatric endocrinologist with over 20 years of experience in managing childhood obesity. In her daily clinical practice she focuses particularly on children with severe and genetic obesity. Childhood and adolescent obesity has also been the main focus of her scientific research for many years, with 126 publications. Since 2015 she has been actively involved, first as an investigator and later as a coordinator, in a Polish-German Consortium on severe early-onset obesity (SEOO). She is also a founding member and vice-president of the Polish Society of Childhood Obesity.
Marie-Laure Frelut, MD, MSc is a paediatrician. Her main field of interest is nutrition, including obesity. She used to be a senior consultant in Paris Robert Debré and Saint Vincent de Paul Children University hospitals and to run an in-patient clinic for severe obesity in adolescents. She is founding member of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), past president and member of the ECOG, member and past Deputy chair of the Clinical Committee of the World Obesity Federation and member of the French Paediatric society and of the French association of Research in Obesity. She was awarded by the French National Academy of Medicine.
Gabriel Torbahn holds a BSc degree in applied nutritional sciences and a MSc degree in public health (MPH). He has more than 15 years of practical experience treating children and adolescents living with obesity. He currently co-leads the obesity counseling centre for children and adolescents at the Department of Pediatrics at Paracelsus Medical Private University in Nuremberg. His main research focus is the management of obesity in children and adolescents and the application of evidence-based research methodology (e.g. systematic reviews, (network) meta-analyses, clinical practice guidelines).
Malgorzata Gabriela Wasniewska is Full Professor of Paediatrics in the Department of Human Pathology of Adulthood and Childhood “Gaetano Barresi” at the University of Messina (Italy). She is Director of the Pediatric Clinic of the University Hospital of Messina and President of the Italian Society of Endocrinology and Pediatric Diabetology (SIEDP). She has authored 317 full-length publications in international peer-reviewed journals with impact factor, with more than 6,700 citations and an h-index of 41 (Scopus).
David Thivel is Full Professor in Exercise Physiology, energy metabolicm and human nutrition at the University Clermont Auvergne (France). He completed a PhD in Exercise Physiology and Human Nutrition in 2011 at French the National Institute for Agronomic Research and Blaise Pascal University of Clermont-Ferrand. He mainly explores the impact of physical activity, energy deficits and weight variations on the behavioral and physiological control of energy intake and appetite, particularly in children and adolescents with obesity.
David Thivel is the head of the AME2P Laboratory of Clermont-Ferrand (Metabolic Adaptations to Exercise under Physiological and Pathological conditions) and holds the International research Chair Health in Motion.
Led by Business Solutions Europa
