Comparison of Resource Utilization and Length of Hospitalization Between Overweight and Healthy-Weight Pediatric Trauma Patients Presenting to a Pediatric Emergency Department With Moderate to Severe Injury A Prospective Study

Objectives Our study aimed to compare overweight and healthy-weight pediatric trauma patient outcomes, specifically with respect to hospital length of stay and resource utilization. We hypothesized that overweight pediatric trauma patients would have increased hospital length of stay and radiographic study use compared with their healthy-weight counterparts. Methods This was a prospective, observational, cohort study of pediatric trauma patients aged 2 to 19 years presenting to an urban pediatric emergency department over a period of 1 year. Using measured height and weight values, body mass index (BMI) for age was calculated and plotted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention BMI-for-age growth charts. Patients were followed up throughout their hospitalization, and the following items were recorded: trauma alert level, mechanism of injury, age, sex, race, Glasgow Coma Scale score, total number of days in hospital, total number of intensive care unit days, total number of radiographs obtained, total number of computed tomography scans obtained, and mechanism of injury. Results Our study population included 109 subjects. The mean age of the subjects was 9.7 years. The number of patients meeting the definition of obese (BMI for age >= 95%) was 15, or 14% of the total study population. There was no significant difference between the overweight cohort and the healthy-weight cohort found among any of the variables recorded and analyzed. Conclusions Although there are many chronic conditions in children associated with obesity, in the case of trauma, it does not seem to be a strong concern. A continued focus on preventing and reversing childhood obesity for other physical and mental health outcomes may be more important.