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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Maya Szerdahelyi

Maya Szerdahelyi

BBC News - Doctors 'miss' underweight children, UCL study suggests - 0 views

  • Doctors may be failing to spot tell-tale signs in children who are underweight, a study suggests.
  • Doctors also scored poorly on knowledge of dangerous complications associated with giving nutrition to someone who has not eaten for a while or is severely malnourished.
  • working to improve training
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • more under-13s now presented with eating disorders than meningitis
  • Only half said they would use Body Mass Index to decide if older children or adolescents were underweight, as advised in international guidelines.
  • only 13% knew a specific danger sign to look for in tests checking that the heart was working properly
  • found poor knowledge on identifying underweight children and serious complications.
  • not a criticism of doctors
  • vague symptoms
  • gap in training.
  • a third of children who are underweight present with life-threatening features
  • training need around eating disorders and underweight issues.
  • Eating disorders admissions rise
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    "Doctors 'miss' Underweight Children, UCL Study Suggests." BBC News. BBC, 02 Aug. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013. It is common knowledge that the number of children and teenagers with eating disorders is rising, and this problem has raised a red flag within the medical community. It is said that these days, there are more under-13s with eating disorders than the common illness of meningitis. However, despite the high death rates and severity of this life-threatening mental illness, researches at University College London have found that many doctors in England and Wales have poor knowledge on identifying underweight children, and were especially perturbed by that fact that only 13% of them could identify specific signs that the heart was not working properly. Doctors also had poor knowledge on how to feed a person who was severely malnourished. However, the researches were not criticizing the doctors - they found that there was a gap in medical training concerning eating disorders. The Royal College of Paediatrics Nutrition Committee said that they would be improving training in this field and are developing a training program around mental health in adolescents.
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    I was very surprised reading this article because I assumed that there would be more knowledge concerning eating disorders. However, I understand that the symptoms can vary a lot depending on the person, making it harder to spot. Also, because eating disorders have only recently been recognized as a serious mental illness, some older doctors may not have had the right training and education in this field. I am pleased that they are trying to improve this situation by providing training for the doctors as this is a very serious illness which affects people of all ages. I hope that over the years, the seriousness of this disease will be more widely recognized and I hope the high numbers of cases declines, and that all doctors and therapists can treat this illness as effectively as possible.
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