The children in the study were classed as overweight if their body mass index (BMI) was at or above the 95th percentile. Children were described as having behavior problems only if they were in the 90th percentile nationally for their score on the Behavior Problems Index, a standardized behavior rating scale completed by their mothers.
The association between overweight and behavior problems was clear in data from the 755 children assessed in 1998. Data from 639 children interviewed both in 1996 and 1998 showed the higher risk of later obesity in normal-weight kids with behavior issues.
Lumeng and her colleagues stress that the majority of the overweight children in the study did not have a major behavior problem -- only that there was a significant correlation between the two. Twenty-one percent of the children with behavior problems were overweight, as opposed to 11 percent of the children without behavior problems.
But with one in five American children between the ages of 6 and 11 years now considered overweight, and an increasing awareness that childhood behavioral problems are a predictor of adult mental health issues, she says the finding should be a wake-up call to parents, teachers and physicians.
Everyone involved with a child's growth and development should consider physical health and mental/behavioral health linked in some way, she says, and address problems with an eye toward both. When a school counselor alerts a parent to a child's learning or attention problem, for example, or a physician notes an unhealthy weight gain, they need to help parents get a thorough evaluation of a child's overall mental and physical health. And, Lumeng observes, the health insurance and health care system needs to find a way to integrate both kinds of care.
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Contact: Kara Gavin
kegavin@umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan Health System
3-Nov-2003