Limited availability of childhood overweight and obesity treatment programmes in Danish paediatric departments.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of children and adolescents with overweight and obesity has tripled over the past 30 years. One in five children in Denmark is overweight, a condition which is accompanied by serious medical and psychosocial complications. So far, an overview of the Danish treatment of childhood overweight and obesity has been lacking.

METHODS: Telephone interviews with all Danish paediatric departments were conducted in 2014. The results, constituting a baseline, were analysed using the clinical guidelines for overweight and obesity published by the Danish Paediatric Society's Overweight Committee in 2015.

RESULTS: About 32% of the 19 departments had multi-dis-cip-linary programmes resembling the guideline recommendations. Roughly 37% of the departments offered considerably less comprehensive programmes than proposed by the guidelines, and roughly 32% offered only a general basic consultation. Body mass index was the primary parameter used to decide whether obesity management was indicated, varying from the > 90 to the > 99 percentile for sex and age.

CONCLUSIONS: In Denmark, one third of paediatric departments nearly complied with the national clinical guidelines. Another third of departments offered less comprehensive programmes. The final third offered no multidisciplinary treatment programme for the target group. The criteria for referral to the paediatric departments that offered obesity programmes were heterogeneous.

FUNDING: Funding for this study was received from Region Midtjyllands Sundhedsvidenskabelige Forskningsfond, Familien Hede Nilsens Fond and Søster Marie Dalgaards Fond.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.