Less than half of overweight children in the United States are told that they are overweight by their physicians, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
The percentage of children and teens aged 6–19 years who are overweight tripled to 16% during the period 1980–2002. Yet from 1999 to 2002, only 36.7% of children or their parents reported having been told by their physician or other health care provider that they were overweight. “By discussing weight status with overweight patients and their parents, pediatric health care providers might help these patients implement lifelong improvements in diet and physical activity,” the CDC said (MMWR 2005;54:848–9).
The data come from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which sampled 1,473 children and teens aged 2–19 years determined to be overweight (greater than or equal to the 95th percentile of body mass index for age and sex in the year 2000).
Parents of children 2–11 years old were asked whether they had ever been told that the child was overweight. For 12- to 15-year-olds, the parent was asked if the child had been told that he/she was overweight.
And teens aged 16–19 years were themselves asked if they had ever been told they were overweight.
The proportion who had been told of their overweight status increased by age, from 17.4% for ages 2–5 years to 32.6% of those aged 6–11 years, to 39.6% for ages 12–15 years, to 51.6% of the adolescents aged 16–19 years.
Overweight black females were significantly more likely to be given the diagnosis than were overweight white females (47% vs. 31%). Among those who were informed of their overweight status, 39% of the black females were severely overweight, compared with 17% of the white females, the CDC reported.
Previous findings suggest that children begin to respond to environmental cues regarding dietary patterns by age 5 years. “Thus, early recognition and discussion of overweight status is a necessary first step to developing healthier lifelong behaviors,” the CDC noted.