Predicting Which Children Will Become More or Less Overweight or Obese

Pediatricians try to identify behaviors in overweight and obese patients that, if modified, might help these patients become less overweight or obese. Researchers prospectively examined whether obesity-related risk factors and behaviors predict future body-mass index (BMI) z-scores in 168 overweight and 441 obese children (mean age, 10 years; 75% Latino) at an urban community health center in Connecticut. At each visit, patients' obesity-related risk behaviors (including consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, fast-food meals, high-calorie snacks, fruits and vegetables, breakfast meals, and amount of television viewing and exercise) were assessed by patient or parent report, and clinicians encouraged patients to reduce obesity-related risk b…