Overweight teenagers are no more likely than their normal-weight peers to receive screening designed to prevent childhood obesity, according to a new study. Despite recommendations calling for pediatricians to target children at risk for childhood obesity, researchers found that overweight teenagers were no more likely than normal-weight teenagers to be screened or receive counseling for nutrition, physical activity, or emotional distress. “These results are discouraging amid a rise in pediatric obesity and new guidelines that recommend screening by BMI status,” researcher Carolyn Bradner Jasik, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues write in Pediatrics.
