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    G121 PREVALENCE OF OBESITY IN PAEDIATRIC RHEUMATOLOGY OUTPATIENTS

    R. Wilshire1, B. Johnson1, G. Shaikh2, J. E. McDonagh3.1Departments of Rheumatology and 2Endocrinology, Birmingham Children’s Hospital; 3Institute of Health, University of Birmingham, UK

    Background: There is an increasing concern of the prevalence and impact of obesity in childhood and adolescence and its potential antecedents of adult morbidities. Coincident rheumatic disease potentially contributes further with mobility difficulties and/or steroid therapy, for example. In consideration of the development of a multidisciplinary health promotion intervention, the aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of obesity in children/young people seen within rheumatology clinics.

    Methods: The height and weight of patients with simple demographic data was recorded in consecutive rheumatology outpatient clinics at a UK children’s hospital. BMI for age data were then calculated and patients fulfilling the criteria for overweight or obesity according to the International Obesity Task Force cut-offs were identified.1

    Results: Initial data were collected on 112 consecutive outpatients of whom 75 were female. The mean age was 10.29 years (range 0.73 to 17.33 years). Diagnoses included juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA; n = 78), SLE (n = 7), juvenile dermatomyositis (JDMS; n = 12), and other rheumatological conditions (n = 15). Twenty patients (18%) were currently receiving oral prednisolone. A fifth (20.54%, 23/112) of the total population was classified as overweight (including seven on prednisolone) and 6.25% (7/112) as obese (including one on prednisolone). Within the sysltemic JIA subtype, 7/13 were overweight or obese compared with 16/65 in the remaining JIA subtypes, 5/12 JDMS and 1/7 SLE groups. Data on additional patients are being collected currently with particular reference to disease subgroup and steroid therapy.

    Conclusions: This pilot study suggests the prevalence of obesity in children and young people with chronic rheumatic disease is similar to their healthy peers (15.4% overweight, 4% obese; p = 0.052 …

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