USPSTF Recommends Obesity Screening for Children Ages 6 to 18 Years

Hey, it only took them 40 years.

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that clinicians screen children ages 6 to 18 years for obesity and refer as appropriate to programs to improve their weight status, according to evidence-based guidelines posted online January 18 and to be published in the February print issue of Pediatrics. The statement, which is an update of the 2005 USPSTF statement about screening for overweight in children and adolescents, is accompanied by a supporting systematic review and commentary.

"Since the 1970s, childhood and adolescent obesity has increased three- to sixfold," write chair Ned Calonge, MD, MPH, from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in Denver, and colleagues from the USPSTF. "Approximately 12% to 18% of 2- to 19-year-old children and adolescents are obese (defined as having an age- and gender-specific BMI [body mass index] at >95th percentile)....Previously, the USPSTF found adequate evidence that BMI was an acceptable measure for identifying children and adolescents with excess weight."

This, unfortunately, will be useless.

Parents will not do squat, as they have not done squat to date.

To have an effect, society will have to acknowledge that harming and killing kids is bad and that the force of the law, already existing BTW, must be brought to bear on abusive parents and mandatory reporters who fail in performing their duties.