RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Can we recognise obesity clinically?
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood
JO Arch Dis Child
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP 1065
OP 1066
DO 10.1136/adc.2007.134486
VO 93
IS 12
A1 S M Smith
A1 P Gately
A1 M Rudolf
YR 2008
UL http://adc.bmj.com/content/93/12/1065.abstract
AB The aim of this study was to ascertain whether health care professionals are able to accurately identify overweight and obese children by observation alone. Eighty health care professionals were asked to view photographs of 33 children and assign each into one of six categories, ranging from “very underweight” to “obese”. The health care professionals’ categorisation was compared with the children’s degree of adiposity based on conventional clinical criteria for BMI. The health care professionals were found to be generally poor at assessing the weight status of the children, and in particular tended to underestimate overweight and obesity in children. This study suggests that it is not appropriate to rely on informal assessment to identify obesity and highlights the need for health care professionals to be aware of their lack of accuracy in this regard.