Abstract
Objectives
The objectives of this study were to 1) examine the prevalence of prescription medication
use overall and 2) examine the association between weight promoting medication (WPM)
use by therapeutic class and weight status among a nationally representative sample
of the children and adolescents in the United States. This study also further investigated
antidepressant medication use among this population.
Methods
This cross-sectional study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey from 2013 to 2018. Children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 years were included
in this study.
Results
Of the 68,057,468 derived participants (34,507,154 [50.7%] male; 33,564,059 [49.3%]
aged 2–10 years; 34,905,058 [51.3%] non-Hispanic White), 14,895,618 (22.2%) used a
prescription medication in the prior 30 days, 21.7% (3,235,323) of which were considered
weight promoting. There was no significant difference between weight status and WPM
use for overall prescription medication use. Nevertheless, for overall antidepressant
medication use, those with obesity were less likely to be prescribed antidepressant
WPM when compared to those with normal weight (adjusted odds ratios 0.4; 95% confidence
interval 0.2–0.7).
Conclusions
These findings suggest that although there was no significant association between
WPM use and weight status overall when examining the association by therapeutic class,
most children with obesity were not using antidepressant WPM. This is reassuring and
potentially an active attempt at avoiding the use of medications that have an exacerbating
effect on weight gain. When choosing antidepressant medications, providers, parents,
and patients consider the WPM effects and appropriately choose a medication best suited
to the child's health status.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: May 06, 2022
Accepted:
April 30,
2022
Received:
August 28,
2021
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofFootnotes
The authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by Academic Pediatric Association
