Evaluating the association between obesity and discharge functional status after pediatric injury

Children with obesity frequently have functional impairment after critical illness. Although obesity increases morbidity risk after trauma, the association with functional outcomes in children is unknown.

To evaluate the association of weight with functional impairment at hospital discharge in children with serious injuries.

This secondary analysis of a multicenter prospective study included children <15 years old with a serious injury. Four weight groups, underweight, healthy weight, overweight, and obesity/severe obesity were defined by body mass index z-scores. The functional status scale (FSS) measured impairment across six functional domains before injury and at hospital discharge. New domain morbidity was defined as a change ≥2 points. The association between weight and functional impairment was determined using logistic regression adjusting for demographics, physiological measures, injury details, presence of a severe head injury, and physical abuse.

Although most patients discharged with good/unchanged functional status, new domain morbidity occurred in 74 patients (17%). New FSS domain morbidity occurred in 13% of underweight, 14% of healthy weight, 15% of overweight, and 26% of obese/severe obese patients. Compared to healthy weight patients, those with obesity had more frequent new domain morbidity (p = 0.01), while the other weight groups had similar morbidity. However, after adjustment for confounders, weight was not associated with new functional morbidity at discharge.

Patients with obesity have greater frequency of new domain morbidity after a serious injury; however, after accounting for injury characteristics, weight group is not independently associated with new functional morbidity at hospital discharge after injury in children.

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