Cleveland Clinic Children's Outcomes

Body Mass Index (BMI) is calculated by dividing a patient's weight in kilograms by the square of the height in meters. BMI is a measure of body fat. BMI naturally increases in school-age children, so clinicians use BMI percentile to measure obesity severity in children. The graph below shows the decrease in BMI percentile between the child's first and second visit to the Be Well clinic.

Obesity severity is measured as percent above the 95th percentile for BMI. In Be Well clinic, we were successful in decreasing average obesity severity from Class 3 to Class 2 in 2017. Obesity severity in new patients has been increasing year-over-year. A decrease in obestiy severity is observed in children when they return for a second visit to Be Well clinic.