Journal of Pediatric Nursing (2014) 29, 491492

EDITORIAL
Special Issue on Childhood
Overweight and Obesity
Childhood overweight and obesity has become a
national health crisis of immense magnitude. The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has increased
more than threefold for school-age children and adolescents since 1980 (Ogden, Carroll, Curtin, Lamb, & Flegal,
2010). Illustrative of the enormity of this health crisis, 34%
of school-age children are overweight and 18% are obese
(Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal,). The potential consequences of childhood overweight and obesity have far
reaching consequences upon the health status of future
generations of adults that include type 2 diabetes and
musculoskeletal, pulmonary, cardiovascular and psychosocial problems (American Heart Association, 2013;
Freedman, Mei, Srinvasan, Berenson, & Dietz, 2007;
Reilly & Kelly, 2011).
The ten articles on the topic of childhood overweight
and obesity of this special issue represent a diverse range
of subjects undertaken by the research and authoring teams
of these articles. Several of these articles have directly
investigated the perspective of the children and adolescents
themselves as it pertains to intervention approaches and their
perceptions of their overweight and obese status. Dr. Lyles'
study How Adolescents Boys Perceive Their Bodies, Body
Parts and Weight: Letting Adolescent Boys' Voices Be
Heard enlarges our understanding of the self-perceptions
of this age group of boys who have weight problems.
These findings provide additional context for incorporating
intervention techniques into weight management frameworks of care. The findings of the article The Relationship of
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2014.09.010
0882-5963/ 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Obesity and Weight Gain to Childhood Teasing, by the

authoring team led by Feeg, demonstrate the social
consequences of teasing upon children who are overweight
and obese. The pilot study conducted by Collins and
Champion, Assessment of Mobile Device and SMS Use for
Diet and Exercise Information Among Rural MexicanAmerican Adolescents, explored Mexican American adolescents' perspectives with the use this intervention method to
disseminate diet and exercise information. The adolescents'
responses provide perspectives that can be integrated into
this adolescent-friendly methodology.
Other studies published in this issue explore the complex
relationship of biopsychosocial factors with childhood
overweight and obesity. The article Demographic, Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Variables Associated with
Overweight and Obesity in Low-Active Girls conveys the
findings of the study conducted by research team led by
Vanden Bosch that examined an array of variables associated
with body mass index. As reported, differences are found
between students who are and are not overweight and obese as
associated with the variables studied. A secondary analysis of
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System data is reported in
the article by Fan, Jin, and Khuchandani, Overweight
Misperception among Adolescents in the United States. The
findings reveal specific discrepancies between perceptions and
reported overweight statistics related to gender and race.
Two studies explored the role and involvement of
caregivers and providers with children who are overweight
and obese. Tipton's study Using the Theory of Planned
Behavior to Understand Caregiver's Intention to Serve Sugar
Sweetened Beverages to Non-Hispanic Black Preschoolers,
explored caregivers' intention to provide high caloric

492
beverages to non-Hispanic black preschoolers. The findings of
this study based on the Theory of Planned Behavior provide
insights as to the factors that influence caregivers' intention.
The research team led by Dr. Aldrich explored the weight
management practices employed by school-based providers
who care for children in school settings who are overweight
and obese as reported in the article School-Based Health
Center Providers' Treatment of Overweight Children. This
community-based study offers insights about child-oriented
providers who live and work with children in this naturalistic
setting that is vital to the lives of children.
Three articles address intervention models that demonstrate promise in working with children who are overweight
and obese. The review conducted by authors Falvery,
Marvicsin, and Danford, entitled An Integrative Review of
Sleep Interventions and Related Clinical Implications for
Obesity Treatment in Children, identified the sleep interventions that may serve as preventive approaches for
childhood overweight and obesity. Dr. LaSala's study as
reported in the Effectiveness of a Child's Fable on the
Cognition of Preschoolers When Used to Address Childhood
Obesity demonstrates a unique yet developmentally appropriate interventional approach to addressing the issue of
childhood overweight and obesity. The article by Geer and
associates Increasing Patient Attendance in a Pediatric
Obesity Clinic: A Quality Improvement Project describes the
process and findings of a quality improvement project
designed to improve obesity clinic attendance.
As the range of titles of publications demonstrate, nurse
and interdisciplinary researchers are actively investigating

Editorial
this public health problem affecting children to better
understand the phenomenon and to develop, implement
and test intervention models to effectively treat childhood
overweight and obesity.
The reader is directed to this issue's research column by
Dr. Becky Christian entitled Translational ResearchFocusing
on Overweight and Obesity in Childhood and Adolescence
to Improve Health. In this column, Dr. Christian examines the
translational and evidence-based implications of the studies
reported in this issue.
Cecily L. Betz PhD, RN, FAAN
Editor-in-Chief
E-mail address: cbetz@chla.usc.edu

References
American Heart Association (2013). Why diabetes matters.
Freedman, D. S., Mei, Z., Srinvasan, S. R., Berenson, G. S., & Dietz, W. H.
(2007). Cardiovascular risk factors and excess adiposity among
overweight children and adolescents: The Bogalusa Heart Study.
Journal of Pediatrics, 150, 1217.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Curtin, L. R., Lamb, M. M., & Flegal, K. M.
(2010). Prevalence of high body mass in US children and adolescents,
20072008. Journal of the American Medical Association, 303, 242249.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Kit, B. K., & Flegal, K. M. (2014). Prevalence
of childhood and adult obesity in the United States, 20112012. Journal
of the American Medical Association, 311, 806814.
Reilly, J. J., & Kelly, J. (2011). Long-term impact of overweight and obesity
in childhood and adolescence on morbidity and premature mortality in
adulthood: Systematic review. International Journal of Obesity, 35,
891898.