Demand for health services and drug prescriptions among overweight or obese preschool children.

Objectives: To evaluate the association between excess weight and the demand of health services in preschool children compared with healthy weight.

Methods: The data come from the Longitudinal Study of Childhood Obesity cohort (1884 4-year-old children, residing in the Madrid region, Spain) who provided information through telephone questionnaire, physical examination and electronic medical records. We defined overweight, general and abdominal obesity based on body mass index, waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio.