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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Childhood obesity and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a newly described comorbidity in obese hospitalized
Anat N Agranat-Meged1, Chane Deitcher, Gil Goldzweig
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital, Hebrew University Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel. anatagranat@barak-online.net
Objective:
The current study described a subgroup of children presenting with obesity and comorbid attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and assessed a possible casual relationship.
Method:
School-aged children hospitalized for obesity (body mass index [BMI] >85%) in a tertiary referral center underwent extensive evaluations and were prospectively assessed for comorbid AD/HD.
Results:
During a 4-year period, 32 obese school-aged children were hospitalized and 26 were included in the current study. We found that over one half (57.7%) suffered from comorbid AD/HD.
Discussion:
AD/HD shows a high comorbidity among obese hospitalized children. The characteristic difficulty in regulation found in AD/HD may be a risk factor for the development of abnormal eating behaviors leading to obesity. We suggest that obese children should be screened routinely for AD/HD.
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