title: Prevalence of toddler, child and adolescent overweight and obesity derived from primary care electronic medical records: an observational study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Population monitoring and surveillance of objectively measured child weight data in Canada is limited to national surveys with poor regional applicability, and no healthy weight data are available for children less than 2 years of age. We aimed to determine the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity using objective measures derived from primary care electronic medical records.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational data included all height and weight records for children less than 20 years of age, between 2004 and 2013, from 3 Ontario primary care research networks. We calculated body mass index (BMI)-for-age and weight-for-length using the World Health Organization Growth Standards and Reference to assign growth status indicator categories by age group. Descriptive data and prevalence estimates were generated for 2013. We also compared weight-for-length for children less than 2 years of age with a corresponding billing code for known well-child visits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our study included 8261 children with a corresponding growth status indicator, a sample close to 4 times larger than the national survey sample. In 2013, 28.4% of children aged 5-19 years, and 6% of children aged 0-5 years, were categorized as overweight or obese. Between 2008 and 2013, the total number of 18-month well baby visit billing codes was 1152; 6.9% of this group were categorized as overweight or obese; 19.2% were categorized as having risk of overweight.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Primary care electronic medical records show good potential for ongoing population monitoring of overweight and obesity, particularly for very young children for whom early intervention is likely to show the greatest positive health impact.
authors.affiliation: KFL&A Public Health - Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Division (Biro), Kingston, Ont.; Centre for Studies in Primary Care (Barber, Morkem, Khan), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Community Health Sciences (Williamson), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.; School of Kinesiology and Health Studies (Janssen), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biro
authors.affiliation: KFL&A Public Health - Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Division (Biro), Kingston, Ont.; Centre for Studies in Primary Care (Barber, Morkem, Khan), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Community Health Sciences (Williamson), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.; School of Kinesiology and Health Studies (Janssen), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.
authors.forename: Dave
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barber
authors.affiliation: KFL&A Public Health - Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Division (Biro), Kingston, Ont.; Centre for Studies in Primary Care (Barber, Morkem, Khan), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Community Health Sciences (Williamson), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.; School of Kinesiology and Health Studies (Janssen), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.
authors.forename: Tyler
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Williamson
authors.affiliation: KFL&A Public Health - Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Division (Biro), Kingston, Ont.; Centre for Studies in Primary Care (Barber, Morkem, Khan), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Community Health Sciences (Williamson), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.; School of Kinesiology and Health Studies (Janssen), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.
authors.forename: Rachael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morkem
authors.affiliation: KFL&A Public Health - Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Division (Biro), Kingston, Ont.; Centre for Studies in Primary Care (Barber, Morkem, Khan), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Community Health Sciences (Williamson), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.; School of Kinesiology and Health Studies (Janssen), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.
authors.forename: Shahriar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: KFL&A Public Health - Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Division (Biro), Kingston, Ont.; Centre for Studies in Primary Care (Barber, Morkem, Khan), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Community Health Sciences (Williamson), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.; School of Kinesiology and Health Studies (Janssen), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Janssen