Are children with clinical obesity at increased risk of inpatient hospital admissions? An analysis using linked electronic health records in the UK millennium cohort study.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Griffiths LJ, Cortina‐Borja M, Bandyopadhyay A, et al. Are children with clinical obesity at increased risk of inpatient hospital admissions? An analysis using linked electronic health records in the UK millennium cohort study, Pediatric Obesity. 2019;e12505. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12505., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.12505. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived VersionsBACKGROUND: Few studies have examined health service utilization of children with overweight or obesity by using linked electronic health records (EHRs). OBJECTIVE/METHODS: We analysed EHRs from 3269 children (1678 boys; 51.3% [weighted]) participating in the Millennium Cohort Study, living in Wales or Scotland at age seven whose parents consented to record linkage. We used height and weight measurements at age five to categorize children as obese (>98th centile) or overweight (>91st centile) (UK1990 clinical reference standards) and linked to hospital admissions, up to age 14 years, in the Patient Episode Database for Wales and Scottish Morbidity Records. Negative binomial regression models compared rates of inpatient admissions by weight status at age five. RESULTS: At age five, 11.5% and 6.7% of children were overweight or obese, respectively; 1221 (38%) children were subsequently admitted to hospital at least once. Admissions were not increased among children with overweight or obesity (adjusted rate ratio [RR], 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 0.68-1.10 and 1.16, 0.87-1.54, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In this nationally representative cohort of children in Wales and Scotland, those with overweight or obesity at entry to primary school did not have increased rates of hospital admissions in later childhood and early adolescence.This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (Grant number 087389/B/08/Z). L.G., C.D., R.A.L., and A.A. are supported by Health Data Research UK, which is funded by the UK Medical Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute for Health Research (England), Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), British Heart Foundation and Wellcome. R.A.L. is also funded by the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (AUK‐AC‐2012‐01) and Health Data Research UK. A.A. and K.T. are supported by an ESRC award establishing the Administrative Data Research Centre Wales (ES/L007444/1)