Clinical, laboratory and radiological assessment of skeletal maturation in children and adolescents with obesity

BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is related to multiple serious health problems and an enhanced risk of premature onset of diseases. The relation of skeletal maturation to obesity is undetermined. The study aims to evaluate skeletal maturation in children and adolescents with obesity, to correlate it with their anthropometric data, body fat content, BMI, fat mass and pubertal stage. RESULTS: Our study shows that obese children and adolescents have accelerated skeletal maturation compared to control normal-weight healthy subjects (mean skeletal age difference of 0.123 ± 0.67 years versus − 0.175 ± 0.32 years). Also, there were significant positive correlations between bone age and BMI (r = 0.435, P value 0.00). CONCLUSION: The mean skeletal age difference was more in the obese group as compared to the control group and suggesting accelerated skeletal development in the obese group. It is important to assess skeletal maturity in growing patients to determine the best timing for orthopedic and orthodontic treatment around the growth spurt.