Diagnosis and Treatment Frequency for Overweight Children and Adolescents at Well Child Visits

Abstract

Obesity in children is a rapidly growing problem and may be underrecognized by pediatricians. We reviewed 473 consecutive well child visits to assess frequency of correctly identifying overweight children. Of children with a body mass index greater than the 95th percentile for gender and age, only 27 (29%) were diagnosed as overweight by the physician. Our results suggest that the frequency of diagnosing children as overweight at well child visits is critically low.