Prevalence of overweight and obesity in a U.S. pediatric surgical population.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the prevalence of overweight and obesity in a pediatric surgical population from a large teaching hospital in the United States.


METHODS
We carried out a retrospective review of the perioperative database for the period January 2000 to December 2004 at the University of Michigan. Using directly measured height and weight, we computed body mass index (BMI) on 6,017 children. Overweight and obesity were defined using age- and gender-specific cut-off according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2000) growth charts. We also examined the type of surgical procedures most commonly performed on overweight and obese children, and the distribution of overweight and obese patients by preoperative American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) classification.


RESULTS
We found a somewhat "heavy" pediatric population with a mean BMI of 21.6kg/m(2). The mean BMI in males was 21.7 kg/m(2) and 21.6 kg/m(2) in females. BMI showed a positive correlation with age overall (r=0.48, p < 0.01), and in both males and females. The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity using age-specific criteria was 14.4% and 17.2%, respectively. Approximately 10% of the children met adult criterion for obesity (BMI > or =30 kg/m(2)). Orthopedic and otolaryngological procedures were the most common surgeries in this cohort of overweight and obese children. We further found that 35.3% of obese and 20.6% of morbidly obese children were classified as ASA I.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of overweight and obesity is high in this pediatric surgical population. Follow-up studies examining the impact of overweight and obesity on perioperative outcome are needed.
Nafiu
Olubukola O
OO
University of Michigan Medical Center, Department of Anesthesiology, 1500 E. Medical Center Drive, 1H247 UH-Box 0048, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. onafiu@med.umich.edu
Ndao-Brumlay
Khady S
KS
Bamgbade
Olumuyiwa A
OA
Morris
Michelle
M
Kasa-Vubu
Josephine Z
JZ
D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D050177:Overweight; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology