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An increasing trend in health-care professionals notifying children of unhealthy weight status: NHANES 1999–2014

International Journal of Obesity volume 40, pages 1480–1485 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background:

Pediatric obesity prevalence remains at historically high levels. The objective of this study was to examine secular trends in the percentages of overweight/obese children who received notification from a health-care professional (HCP) about their unhealthy weight.

Methods:

We analyzed data of 25 570 (including 8639 overweight/obese) children aged 2–18 years collected from seven cross-sectional biennial surveys (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2014), in which adolescents (16 years and older) and caregivers, mostly biological mothers, of children (2–15 years) were asked 'Has a doctor or other health professional ever told you that you (or your child) were overweight?'

Results:

Approximately 90% of overweight/obese children visited HCPs at least once in the past 12 months, but only 22.12% (s.e.=1.92) in 1999 to 34.43% (2.35) in 2014 of the overweight/obese children were notified by HCPs about unhealthy weight. The biennial increase in odds of receipt of notification of unhealthy weight was 1.08 (95% confidence interval=(1.04–1.12)). Greater likelihood for receipt of notification was associated with being obese (odds ratio=5.03 (4.29–5.89) vs overweight); black (1.24 (1.06–1.46)) or Hispanic race/ethnicity (1.72 (1.45–2.04) vs white); female sex (1.22 (1.07–1.11) vs boys); and child’s insurance status (1.31 (1.08–1.59) vs uninsured). There were increasing odds of being notified with increasing age: 1.00 (reference), 2.24 (2.06–2.62), 3.22 (2.50–4.13) and 4.87 (3.76–6.32) for children 2–5, 6–11, 12–16 and 16+ year old, respectively. The frequency of medical contact was linearly associated with an increased likelihood of being notified.

Conclusions:

Notification of child’s unhealthy weight by HCPs increased significantly between 1999 and 2014, but the opportunity of clinical intervention remained substantially under-utilized.

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Acknowledgements

Dr Zhang conceived of and designed the study, acquired and interpreted the data, and critically revised it. Drs Zhang, Hansen and Duncan had full access to all of the data in the study, take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis; Drs Hansen, Duncan and Woo Baidal assisted in designing, analyzing and interpreting the data, drafting manuscript and critically revising the manuscript. Ms Hill and Turner analyzed the data and drafted the article. We thank Mr James Williams and John Twarog for commenting on an earlier version of this manuscript. The project was done with no specific support. Parts of the results were submitted by Ashley Hill and Suzi Turner in partial fulfillment of the requirements for their degrees in Master of Public Health.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health Behavior and Education, Georgia Southern University Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Statesboro, GA, USA

    A R Hansen

  2. Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    D T Duncan

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Columbia University Medical Center & New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital,

    J A Woo Baidal

  4. New York, NY, USA

    J A Woo Baidal

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Georgia Southern University Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Statesboro, GA, USA

    A Hill, S C Turner & J Zhang

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Correspondence to J Zhang.

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Hansen, A., Duncan, D., Woo Baidal, J. et al. An increasing trend in health-care professionals notifying children of unhealthy weight status: NHANES 1999–2014. Int J Obes 40, 1480–1485 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2016.85

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