University children’s health clinic tapped for national obesity study

By Aaron Lee

Published: November 16, 2008

The Children’s Fitness Clinic at the University of Virginia’s Children’s Hos-pital has been chosen to participate in a nationwide obesity study.

The 18-month study includes 16 children’s hospitals and is designed to develop national standards of care to battle childhood obesity.

Committees fielded among participating hospitals will investigate, among other things, the best ways to get legislatures, communities and physicians to better recognize the importance of weight-management programs that can stave off obesity.

“I always like to say, ‘It takes an orchestra,’” said Susan Cluett, nurse practitioner with the fitness clinic. “We all have to be playing our little instruments.”

In the five years since its inception, the clinic has treated about 1,300 patients, most living in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County area.

Victoria Norwood is medical director at the clinic and said the Charlottesville area — even though recently billed by AARP as one of the country’s healthiest places to live — is right at or above the national average in terms of overweight children.

She said that without trying something new, “instead of getting better and better, we’re going to go the other way.”

Most of the children who come to the clinic are already obese, she said.

And she said the extra weight is leading to a rise in health problems, such as hypertension, diabetes and kidney disease.

The National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions chose the UVa clinic for the study from a field of 144 pediatric programs.

The study is supported by a grant from the Mattel Children’s Foundation.