Long Island experts: New child obesity BMI useful 'tool' to treat kids
Long Island health experts said the CDC's revised charts measuring childhood obesity are a useful tool to track young patients amid a surge in overweight youth during the pandemic. Credit: AP/Patrick Sison
Long Island health officials say updated CDC growth and body mass index charts that track obesity in children are useful at a time of skyrocketing childhood obesity, made worse by the pandemic — one "tool" among others to treat young patients and their families.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday revealed its updated growth charts that now allow for a classification of obesity in children that extends to a body mass index, or BMI, of 60, up from an index that had stopped at 37. The extended BMI allows for greater classification of obesity among children ages 2 to 19.
The old charts, in use since 2000, were based on data from U.S. surveys conducted from 1963 to 1994, when far fewer children were obese, let alone severely obese, said Cynthia Ogden, a CDC epidemiologist. In 2022, about 4.5 million children nationwide — about 6% — fall into that category.
More specificity
Dr. Tina Cheng, a physician with the Center for Pediatric Specialty Care at Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, said the extended BMI chart allows for more specificity. For example, she said, under the original BMI index, a 16-year-old boy who stood 5-foot-10 and weighed 251 pounds, would have been classified as weighing more than 99% of adolescents his age.
What to know
- The CDC has released updated growth charts to measure obesity levels in children.
- The charts include a body mass index of 60, up from previous charts that stopped at a BMI of 37. Severe obesity affects an estimated 4.5 million children and teens in the U.S.
- Long Island health officials say the updated charts are useful at a time of skyrocketing childhood obesity, made worse by the pandemic.
"But if we use the extended BMI chart, then we get some more information, a little bit clearer information about where he falls in the upper echelon of his obesity," Cheng said. "It can give you a different category, not just that he's overweight. Now we can say he’s in class 2 obesity."
The extended BMI index is "helpful to show parents their child’s progress … It’s nice to visually see that trend," said Amy Canterella, a registered dietitian and nutritionist at Stony Brook Children's Hospital's Healthy Weight and Wellness Center.
Long Island health care providers like Cheng said they've already been using similar extended BMI measures as that released by the CDC.
"We've been aware of it for probably two or three years," she said, adding that the CDC's extended chart was important in that it gives added attention to the issue.
"At least more people will be aware."
Similarly, Canterella said: "Other hospitals, other facilities have been using a very similar chart to this. We were hoping the CDC was going to use one as well. I think it reflects what’s been happening in our country. Obesity in young kids and teens is rising."
Dr. Sara Siddiqui, a pediatrician at NYU Langone Huntington Medical Group, said: "We have been using the extended BMI for quite a while through the American Academy of Pediatrics. With the CDC coming out with its extended chart, it would make it easier for others" in the health care field beyond pediatric endocrinologists.
"Once you get above a certain BMI and you're classified as overweight or obese, there are certain classifications within it that in pediatrics can help identify those children that may be at increased risk for, let's say type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance," Siddiqui said. "These are all things we do want to monitor. The BMI charts help to monitor them a little bit better."
A conversation starter
Canterella said the extended BMI chart is "a conversation starter to talk about barriers [and] behaviors we want to work on, motivation levels. It’s just one tool in our toolbox." She added: "We never just focus on a number. For some children sensitive to a number, we don’t have to show them. It’s just one little tool."
But for others, she said: "Now we have another tool to show them visually how they're doing."
Canterella said the trend of rising obesity rates among children got worse during the pandemic.
"We’ve seen an increase since COVID and the pandemic," Canterella said. "We’ve also seen an uptick in eating disorders since the pandemic, [and] overall distorted eating behavior."
She said a number of factors are involved.
"Yes, kids are not as active as they once were. There's an increase in screen time [on electronic devices]. I also think that families are working very hard and are not at home as often to prepare meals, and they are eating out, and eating more processed foods."
There is also "a lot of emotional eating that’s coming into play as well," Canterella said.
With AP
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