Children and adolescents who are obese or overweight have higher
health care utilization and a significantly higher average of
health care charges than their healthy-weight peers, according
to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics &
Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to background information in the article, 30 percent
of children in the United States are obese or overweight with
six in ten having at least one risk factor for cardiovascular
disease and 25 percent having more than two risk factors for the
disease. The authors note that more than 80 percent of obese
12-year-olds will carry their overweight status into adulthood.
Sarah E. Hampl, M.D., and colleagues at Children's Mercy
Hospitals and Clinics and the University of MissouriKansas City
School of Medicine analyzed data from 8,404 patients age 5 to 18
who attended a primary care clinic in the Midwest for well-child
care visits during 2002 and 2003. Body mass index (BMI) was
calculated with patients' hei