Development of an international standard to define child and adolescent obesity is critical to make meaningful international estimates and comparisons. BMI (=weight/height2) is widely used to measure adiposity in children and adults. WHO recommends use of the 85th percentile BMI-for-age (based on the US NHANES I data) to define adolescent overweight, and both BMI 85th percentile and 90th percentile triceps skinfold thickess for obese. Recently the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) suggests a scheme for children and adolescents of age-sex-specific BMI cutoffs based on international accepted cutoffs for adults of 25 and 30 to identify overweight and obesity, respectively. These to-be-published cutoffs are based on data from 6 countries. Using three nationwide samples of 3014, 2152 and 6091 children aged 6-18 from China, Russia and the US (NHANES III data), respectively, we examined the agreement between these two standards. By using the WHO and IOTF standards, combined overweight and obesity prevalence was 6.5% and 7.0% in China, 9.4% and 10.8% in Russia, and 27.5% and 29.7% in the US, respectively. Kappa (an agreement statistic) ranged 0.85-0.91 for overweight and 0.88-0.97 for obesity. We conclude that the agreement between the two standards is excellent although the IOTF standard is better for international use given its unique strengths.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to: 1. List two major standards to measure child and adolescent overweight and obesity, and their strengths and limitations for local and international use. 2. Tell the prevalence of child and adolescent obesity in different SES and ethnic groups in the US as well as the situation in some other countries. 3. Make better interpretation of published results from different studies and populations
Keywords: Children and Adolescents, Obesity
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.