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A study published in the September/October issue of Academic Pediatrics suggests that color coding pediatric patient charts may help improve parental understanding of body mass index (BMI), HealthDay News reports. To determine how well parents understand BMI, researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill and colleagues studied a group of 163 parents of children between age 2 and age 8 at two academic pediatric centers. According to the researchers, although 60 percent of parents reported knowing what BMI was, just 30 percent could define it at least partially correctly. However, when parents were shown a color-coded patient chart, the odds of answering BMI-related questions correctly was 88 percent, compared with only 65 percent when traditional patient charts were used. Specifically, use of the color-coded charts increased comprehension more significantly among parents with grade-school-level numeracy than among those with at least high-school-level numeracy. Commenting on the findings, the researchers conclude that "color-coded BMI charts increase the number of parents who will understand BMI charting." They further suggest that "color-coded BMI charting may be one element in the growing repertoire of tools to assist pediatricians in effectively communicating with parents and may help start a conversation of therapeutic lifestyle change in an era of a childhood obesity epidemic" (HealthDay News/Modern Medicine, 9/21/09).