Coding and obesity: Room to grow

Introduction: obesity is the leading health problem in the united states. providers often fail to document obesity in patients whose body mass index (bmi) is more than 30. methods: using a structured data query of the military health system electronic medical record,we determined the bmi and presence of an associated international classification of disease code in a cohort of more than 3 million patients. results: fifteen percent of patients (482,628) had a bmi exceeding 30. of those patients with a bmi more than 30,78,776 (16%) had an associated international classification of disease 9 code documenting obesity in their record. conclusion: coding and documentation of obesity is inadequate. this has implications for delivery of preventive counseling and efforts to mitigate rising trends in obesity.