title: Health state preferences associated with weight status in children and adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood obesity is a substantial public health problem. The extent to which health state preferences (utilities) are related to a child's weight status has not been reported. The aims of this study were (1) to use a generic health state classification system to measure health related quality of life and calculate health utilities in a convenience sample of children and adolescents and (2) to determine the extent to which these measures are associated with weight status and body mass index (BMI).
  
  
  METHODS
  We enrolled 76 children 5-18 years of age from a primary care clinic and an obesity clinic in Boston MA. We administered the Health Utilities Index (HUI) and used the HUI Mark 3 single- and multi-attribute utility functions to calculate health utilities. We determined BMI percentile and weight status based on CDC references. We examined single-attribute and overall utilities in relation to weight status and BMI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean (range) age was 10.8 (5-18) years. Mean (SD) BMI percentile was 76 (26); 55% of children were overweight or obese. The mean (SD) overall utility was 0.79 (0.17) in the entire sample. For healthy-weight children, the mean overall utility was higher than for overweight or obese children (0.81 vs. 0.78), but the difference was not statistically significant (difference 0.04, 95% CI -0.04, 0.11).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results provide a quantitative estimate of the health utility associated with overweight and obesity in children, and will be helpful to researchers performing cost effectiveness analyses of interventions to prevent and/or treat childhood obesity.
authors.affiliation: Div of Newborn Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA. mandy.belfort@childrens.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Mandy B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Belfort
authors.forename: John A F
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Zupancic
authors.forename: Katherine M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Riera
authors.forename: Jane H G
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Lisa A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Prosser
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D001900:Boston / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D013851:Thinness / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology