Table 4.

Average Medicaid Expenditure for 3528 Adolescents Aged 12 to 18,^a by Weight Category^b and Type of Health Service Provided, North Carolina, 2004

Weight Category	Number of Adolescents	Average Cost of Health Service
		Hospital Stay	P Valuec	Physician Visit	P Valuec	Prescription Drug	P Valuec
Underweight	49	$1201	.38	$3697	.32	$639	.15
Normal weight	1841	$269	ref	$1897	Ref	$340	ref
At risk for overweight	619	$379	.37	$2456	.17	$426	.10
Overweight	1019	$360	.44	$2361	.22	$483	.01
All Study Adolescents	3528	$327		$2154		$401

Ref indicates reference group.

^aAdolescents enrolled in Medicaid for at least 11 months in 2004.

^bWeight categories: underweight, body mass index (BMI) less than the 5th percentile; normal weight, BMI 5th to 84th percentile; at risk for overweight, BMI 85th to 94th percentile; overweight, BMI 95th or greater percentile.

^c P values of less than .05 indicate a statistically significant difference at the 95% confidence level (two-tail test). Average expenditures for the underweight, at-risk-for-overweight, and overweight groups are each compared with the average expenditures for the normal-weight group by difference-of-means tests.