title: Availability of state-based obesity surveillance data on high school students with disabilities in the United States.
abstract: The aim of this study was to assess the availability of public health surveillance data on obesity among American children with disabilities in state-based surveillance programs. We reviewed annual cross-sectional datasets in state-level surveillance programs for high school students, implemented 2001-2011, for the inclusion of weight and height and disability screening questions. When datasets included a disability screen, its content and consistency of use across years were examined. We identified 54 surveillance programs with 261 annual datasets containing obesity data. Twelve surveillance programs in 11 states included a disability screening question that could be used to extract obesity data for high school students with disabilities, leaving the other 39 states with no state-level obesity data for students with disabilities. A total of 43 annual datasets, 16.5 % of the available datasets, could be used to estimate the obesity status of students with disabilities. The frequency of use of disability questions varied across states, and the content of the questions often changed across years and within a state. We concluded that state surveillance programs rarely contained questions that could be used to identify high school students with disabilities. This limits the availability of data that can be used to monitor obesity and related health statuses among this population in the majority of states.
authors.affiliation: Department of Disability and Human Development, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1640 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA, kiyoshiy@uic.edu.
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamaki
authors.forename: Brienne Davis
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Lowry
authors.forename: Emilie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Buscaj
authors.forename: Leigh
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zisko
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Rimmer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D040343:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D016208:Databases, Factual; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012574:Schools; D013219:State Government; D013334:Students; D014481:United States