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OBJECTIVE. Pediatric overweight and obesity are increasingly prevalent problems and have received much attention in recent years, but it is unclear whether this publicity has affected diagnosis by clinicians. We undertook the current study to assess trends in diagnosis rates of overweight and obesity in children.

PATIENTS AND METHODS. We analyzed electronic medical record data from 60711 patients aged 2 through 18 years with at least 1 well-child visit between June 1999 and October 2007 in a large academic medical system in northeast Ohio. Diagnosis of weight problems among children classified as overweight and obese was assessed by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes. Logistic regression was used to examine the impact of patient characteristics on diagnosis and to investigate trends over the study period.

RESULTS. On retrospective review of BMI …