Children's overweight and obesity: local and national monitoring using electronic health records.
OBJECTIVE
To test the feasibility of a system for monitoring children's obesity and overweight based on data from electronic health records in the school health services.


METHODS
Data on weight and height from electronic health records at school health services were collected for 10-year-olds in 2003-2004, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. School health personnel extracted group-level data with a simple program installed on the computer containing the health records. Four Swedish municipalities were included in the study: Karlstad, Umeå, Västerås, and Ystad.


RESULTS
The system achieved coverage of 92-96% of all children in 2005-2006. The overall prevalence rates were 4.2% (3.8-4.7%) obese and 22.0% (21.1-23.0%) overweight, including obesity.


CONCLUSIONS
A system based on electronic health records from the school health services can successfully provide data. The system has practical, economical and ethical strengths.
Lager
Anton C J
AC
Centre for Health Equity Studies, CHESS, Stockholm University/Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. anton.lager@chess.su.se
Fossum
Bjöörn
B
Rörvall
Göran
G
Bremberg
Sven G
SG
D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D050177:Overweight / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology; D012572:School Health Services; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology