Mental health in children within pediatric care.

The number of children and youth with obesity (i. e. ISO-BMI >30), has increased greatly during the last few decades. Obesity usually has strong social- and psychological components, and the relation between children and their parents is of great importance. Simultaneous to the increase in obesity, there has been an increase in the number of children and youth that develop mental illness. Medical care providers have well-established programs for examining somatic secondary diseases to obesity, however, no routine exists for examining their mental health. The main purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence of mental illness in children and youth that receive obesity treatment at medical clinics in Sweden. Furthermore, we aim to implement a functional screening tool for examining mental health in this group.