Primary Care Clinical Practice Elements and Improving Overweight Children's Weight Status

The aim of this study is to identify specific clinical practice elements in pediatric primary care that predict improvement in weight status among overweight school-age children. Pediatricians are well-suited to regularly assess and treat school-age children who are overweight. Well-child visits present an important opportunity to assess and treat overweight children. Strategies are needed to maximize the effectiveness of this opportunity. Although the American Academy of Pediatrics endorses recommendations by the United States Preventive Services Task Force that clinicians screen for overweight, assess medical/behavior risk, and use a staged treatment approach that includes frequent reassessment, it is unclear whether these practices, when used in primary care, impact whether children make lifestyle changes or improve their weight status. It is essential to identify specific clinical practice elements and communication strategies associated with weight-status improvement in overweight children, to maximize the effectiveness of primary-care weight-management interventions. The investigators hypothesize that, during primary-care visits with overweight 6-12-year-old children, attention to high BMI, medical risk (from weight-related comorbidities such as high blood pressure), and reassessing progress (defined as having a primary-care visit with evidence of attention to BMI or completing a referral to a weight-management specialist or nutritionist) will be associated with improvement in weight status (assessed as decrease in percent overweight (percentage above the age/sex-specific 95th BMI percentile) at follow-up.

Inclusion criteria

• 6-12 year-old children with ≥2 visits
• valid height and weight data at each visit
• BMI ≥85th percentile at the first visit

Exclusion criteria

• children <6 and >12 years old
• no valid height and weight data at two visits
• BMI <85th percentile at all 6-12 year-old well child visits