CLEVELAND, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Up to 90 percent of overweight children in the United States are not properly diagnosed, researchers said.
Researchers at The MetroHealth System and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland stresses that a failure to diagnose appears to mostly impact children who may most greatly benefit from early intervention.
The researchers, using electronic medical records, reviewed body mass index measurements recorded for 60,711 children ages 2-18, who had at least one well-child visit between June 1999 and October 2007 at MetroHealth.
The BMI measurement showed that 19 percent were overweight, 23 percent were obese and 8 percent were severely obese.
The study, published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics, found that while 76 percent of severely obese children and 54 percent of obese children were diagnosed -- just 10 percent of overweight patients received a proper diagnosis.
"Despite having set pediatric BMI guidelines, this is a bit of a wake-up call to pediatricians that as many as 90 percent of overweight children are not being properly diagnosed," lead author Dr. David C. Kaelber said in a statement.
Overweight is defined as a BMI between the 85th-95th percentile, obesity a BMI greater than 95th percentile and severely obese a BMI equal or greater to the 99th percentile.
