Considerations for PALS Practitioners and Childhood Obesity: Texas and Ohio

According to F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2011, a report by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 20.4 percent of Texas children meet the criteria for childhood obesity. Texas is not the only state with a childhood obesity rate higher than 20 percent; Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois and Georgia all have childhood obesity rates between 20 and 25 percent. Ohio’s childhood obesity rate is 18.5 percent.

Childhood obesity—in Texas or anywhere else—is not only a concern for future health issues and complications; it can affect how doctors, nurses and emergency response personnel administer care to children. Healthcare professionals who find themselves working with children are usually required to be certified in pediatric advanced life support (PALS). These PALS practitioners should take the following five facts into consideration.

Obese patients tend to require CPR for a longer time than patients in other weight categories.
Obese patients are more likely to be pulseless throughout the emergency situation.
Defibrillation difficulties can be common for obese patients.
Obesity was independently associated with worse rates of event survival, survival after discharge and survival with a favorable neurologic outcome.
Childhood obesity doesn’t discriminate. When it comes to childhood obesity, TX 4th to 11th grade girls and boys have obesity rates of 16.6 and 21.4 percent respectively.

Source: American Heart Association

Childhood obesity—Texas, Ohio, or anywhere in the United States—is a public health issue that all healthcare professionals must be aware of if their line of work includes infants and children.

In addition, it’s important for these doctors, nurses and emergency response teams to take note of all local pediatric health trends. Ohio, for example, has seen a recent outbreak of salmonella in children due to chicks and ducklings living as household pets.

Health Ed Solutions, the leading online provider of continuing healthcare education, offers online PALS certification and recertification courses along with ACLS and BLS courses. CPR and AED training courses are also available.