title: Healthcare utilization by obese and overweight children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the relationship between childhood obesity and health care use in a large, nationally representative group of children with measured anthropometrics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of 5 combined National Health and Nutrition Survey datasets from 2001 to 2010. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models assessed the relationship between health care use variables and weight status (overweight: body mass index 85th to <95th percentile for age and sex; obese: body mass index ≥95th percentile for age and sex) for children 2-18 years of age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overweight and obese children are more likely to receive their routine medical care in an emergency department than a primary care setting (overweight OR 1.95; 95% CI 1.22-3.14 and obese OR 1.88; 95% CI 1.24-2.86) than their normal-weight peers. After we adjusted for relevant covariates, this finding persisted among overweight, but not obese, children. Other health care use variables were not significantly associated with weight status.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overweight children may be more likely to use the emergency department than primary care settings for routine medical care. Interventions to establish primary care medical homes for overweight children merit consideration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Long Island Children's Hospital, Stony Brook Children's Hospital, Stony Brook, NY. Electronic address: josette.bianchi-hayes@stonybrookmedicine.edu.
authors.forename: Josette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bianchi-Hayes
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Long Island Children's Hospital, Stony Brook Children's Hospital, Stony Brook, NY.
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Calixte
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Long Island Children's Hospital, Stony Brook Children's Hospital, Stony Brook, NY.
authors.forename: Jiayu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Long Island Children's Hospital, Stony Brook Children's Hospital, Stony Brook, NY.
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cataldo
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Long Island Children's Hospital, Stony Brook Children's Hospital, Stony Brook, NY.
authors.forename: Angie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Long Island Children's Hospital, Stony Brook Children's Hospital, Stony Brook, NY.
authors.forename: Susmita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pati
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys / Q000379:methods; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology