Published online November 30, 2007
PEDIATRICS
Vol. 120
Supplement
December 2007, pp.
S163
(doi:10.1542/peds.2007-2329H)
Introduction
Joylene John-Sowah, MD, MPH, Project Director
The American Medical Association, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, convened an expert committee to develop recommendations on the assessment, prevention, and treatment of child and youth overweight and obesity.
In 1997, the Health Resources and Services Administration convened the first expert committee to develop recommendations on the evaluation and treatment of child and youth obesity. At that time, few studies of this problem had been conducted; therefore, the approaches to evaluation and therapy were rarely evidence based. Obesity in children and adolescents continues to represent one of the most frustrating and difficult conditions to treat.
In February 2004, the American Medical Association convened a second expert committee to guide the development of 3 articles that would explore current evidence-based science and form the basis of new recommendations on the assessment, prevention, and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity. Representatives from 15 national organizations formed the second expert committee. The committee used a multidisciplinary model and integrated approaches across disciplines. The conceptual framework is the chronic care model with the goal of achieving family/self-management of childhood obesity.
The product is 4 articles, 1 on each of the aforementioned overview areas of the management of obesity and 1 overarching support document. The articles were written by national experts in the field of childhood obesity who were nominated jointly by the members of the expert and steering committees.
Once the articles and the recommendations were finalized, the representatives took them back to the parent organizations for endorsement. The following organizations have endorsed the recommendations:
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Dietetic Association
- National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
- Association of American Indian Physicians
- American Heart Association
- National Association of School Nurses
- American College of Sports Medicine
- The Obesity Society (formerly NAASO)
- The Endocrine Society
- American College of Preventive Medicine
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- National Medical Association
PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2007 by the American Academy of Pediatrics
