Sara Mehmood Birchall Shah

• Kjøllesdal, Marte Karoline Råberg; Shah, Sara Mehmood Birchall; Labberton, Angela Susan; Bergh, Ingunn Holden; Qureshi, Samera Azeem & Suren, Pål (2023). Obesity diagnoses in children and adolescents in Norway by immigrant background. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. ISSN 1403-4948. doi: 10.1177/14034948231157951. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Aim: Relatively few obese children and adolescents receive specialist treatment. Our aim was to assess associations between risk of receiving an obesity diagnosis in secondary/tertiary health services by socio-economic position and immigrant background in order ultimately to improve equity in health services. Methods: The study population comprised Norwegian-born children aged 2–18 years between 2008 and 2018 ( N=1,414,623), identified via the Medical Birth Registry. Cox regressions were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) of an obesity diagnosis from secondary/tertiary health services (Norwegian Patient Registry) by parental education and household income and by immigrant background. Results: Higher parental education and household income were associated with a lower hazard of obesity diagnosis regardless of Norwegian versus immigrant background. Compared to having a Norwegian background, having a Latin American (HR=4.12; 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.18–5.34), African (HR=1.54; 95% CI 1.34–1.76) and Asian (HR=1.60; 95% CI 1.48–1.74) background was associated with higher hazard of obesity diagnosis. Adjusted for parental education and household income, corresponding HRs were 3.28 (95% CI 2.95–3.65) for Latin America, 0.95 (95% CI 0.90–1.01) for Africa and 1.08 (95% CI 1.04–1.11) for Asia. Within Asia, those with a background from Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq and Iran had higher hazards than those with a Norwegian background, while those with a background from Vietnam had lower hazards, even after adjusting for parental education and household income. Conclusions: To ensure more equitable treatment, more knowledge is warranted about health-service access and referral patterns, and underlying population prevalence rates, for obese children and adolescents with different immigrant backgrounds.

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• Ødegård, Rønnaug Astri; Juliusson, Pétur Benedikt; Kokkvoll, Ane Sofie; Kristiansen, Hege; Köpp, Unni Mette Stamnes & Rolin, Johannes [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2023). Ungdom med alvorlig fedme bør få legemiddel på blå resept. Tidsskrift for Den norske legeforening (Tidsskriftet). ISSN 0029-2001. 143(3), p. 1–4. doi: 10.4045/tidsskr.23.0069. Full text in Research Archive

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