Respectful Language and Care in Childhood Obesity

For many years, obesity has been the most prevalent chronic disease in the United States. In pediatrics, obesity is classified as follows: body mass index (BMI) of 95% or greater of the 95th percentile as class I (mild), BMI of 120% or greater of the 95th percentile as class II (moderate), and BMI of 140% or greater of the 95th percentile as class III (severe). Current estimates suggest that 16.8% of youths between the ages of 2 and 20 years and 39.6% of adults have obesity.¹ The rate of severe obesity is increasing most rapidly, with severe obesity now affecting approximately 5 million youths. Nevertheless, the medical community has been slow to discard pervasive thinking of obesity more as a lifestyle choice than as a complex multifactorial disease.