Pediatric Quality of Life Among Population With Body Mass Index (BMI) Greater Than or Equal to 85%

We are currently experiencing an obesity epidemic in the Pediatric population. The latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data indicates that 16.5% has a BMI greater than or equal to 85% \< 95% and 17.1% has a BMI greater than or equal to 95%. The quality of life of children who are obese has been shown to be lower than that of children with cancer. Health related quality of life measurements have emerged as an important health outcome in clinical trials, clinical practice improvement strategies, and healthcare services research and evaluation. We have conducted a behavioral nutrition and exercise program since 2003. The name of the program is Teens, Empowerment, Exercise, Education, Nutrition (TEEEN) Program. We meet once a month on a Saturday afternoon for four hours. During this time we cover: registration (monitoring of sedentary activities and liquid choices; motivational interview, exercise testing); exercise; educational interactive lectures; didactic games and projects. We have noticed that participants seem to have a better quality of life after participating in the program compared to baseline. We would like to objectively quantify this subjective finding. We will be using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Version 4.0 (PedsQL(TM)4.0) questionnaire which has been validated in the pediatric population. We will have an intervention and a control group. Both participants and their caretakers will be given a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the study.