• Online Features  This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (21)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Medical Practice  • Medical Practice, Other  • Pediatrics  • Pediatrics, Other  • Public Health  • Obesity  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Paul A. Estabrooks, PhD; Susan Shetterly, MS

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(3):222-227.

Objective  To determine the prevalence, health care use, and costs of overweight children when compared with healthy-weight children.

Design  Longitudinal cohort.

Setting  Kaiser Permanente Colorado is an integrated, nonprofit health care system.

Patients  Eleven thousand six hundred thirty-six children who completed at least 1 body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) assessment between 2000 and 2004.

Main Exposure  Overweight.

Main Outcome Measure  Health care use. Based on previous research that demonstrated a higher cost for obese adults when compared with healthy-weight adults, we hypothesized that, when compared with healthy-weight children, overweight children would have higher health care use patterns.

Results  Thirteen percent and 14% of the sample, respectively, were classified as overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. At both year 1 (rate ratio [RR] = 1.11 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.06-1.17]) and year 3 (RR = 1.06 [95% CI, 1.01-1.11]), overweight children had significantly more internal Kaiser Permanente Colorado medical visits, although the magnitude of the relationship was relatively small. Of particular note was the relationship between being overweight and increased use of mental health resources at both points (year 1 RR = 1.47; year 3 RR = 1.48). The calculated additional annual cost of use for 1000 overweight children (regression adjusted to control for comorbidities) was approximately $42 000 for primary care sick visits and $32 000 for mental health visits.

Conclusion  There is potential for cost savings or cost realignment with weight-management interventions from dollars that could be saved through the reduction of childhood overweight.

Author Affiliations: Clinical Research Unit, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Denver.

CiteULike    Connotea    Delicious    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Payment for Obesity Services: Examples and Recommendations for Stage 3 Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Intervention Programs for Children and Adolescents
Slusser et al.
Pediatrics 2011;128:S78-S85.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Relationship Among Child Weight Status, Psychosocial Functioning, and Pediatric Health Care Expenditures in a Medicaid Population
Janicke et al.
J Pediatr Psychol 2010;35:883-891.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Encounters for common illnesses in general practice increased in obese patients
van Wayenburg et al.
Fam Pract 2008;25:i93-i98.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT