Original ArticlePediatric Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension and Extreme Childhood Obesity
Section snippets
Methods
The institutional review board at Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) approved this study. Informed consent was waived as this was a database and chart review study only without direct patient contact.
For this cross-sectional study, we used data on children enrolled in the KPSC Children's Health Study, which is described in detail elsewhere.9 KPSC is a large prepaid health maintenance organization with over 3.2 million members including over 900 000 members 18 years and younger. It
Results
Children and adolescents in KPSC who were overweight, moderately, or extremely obese were more likely to be 11 years or older (P < .001), male (P < .001), and Hispanic or Black, than those of normal weight (P < .001; Table I).
The 78 children with clinically definite IIH, were also more likely to be 11 years or older at diagnosis (n = 66, 84.5%; Table II). However, in contrast to the general study population, IIH cases were more likely to be female (n = 66, 84.5%) and White, non-Hispanic (n =
Discussion
Whether obesity and female sex are risk factors for pediatric IIH is unclear. Few studies have examined pediatric IIH risk factors and most are descriptive case series with BMI or weight information available only for cases.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Some studies have found pediatric IIH cases to be predominantly overweight or obese adolescent females3, 8 similar to adults with IIH, and others have reported no increase in BMI4, 5, 7 or female preponderance among cases.5, 7 Methodological limitations
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Supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders (R21DK085395, to C.K.) and Kaiser Permanente Direct Community Benefit Funds. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.