Waist Circumference and Waist for Height Percentiles in Urban South Indian Children Aged 3-16 Years.
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Date
2011-10
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Abstract
Objectives: To develop age and gender specific waist
circumference references for urban Indian children aged 3
-16 years.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: Urban preschools and schools of Bangalore.
Participants: 9060 children (5172 boys and 3888 girls) in
the age group of 3-16 years.
Methods: Weight, height, and waist circumference were
measured using standard anthropometric methodology.
Percentiles for waist circumference and Waist/height ratio
(W/Ht) for each age and gender were constructed and
smoothed using the LMS method.
Results: Mean waist circumference increased with age for
both girls and boys. The upper end of curve in boys
continued to increase, whereas in the girls it tended to
plateau at 14 years. The waist circumference of the Indian
children from the present study was higher than age and
sex matched European children. The proportion of
children with W/Ht ratio greater than 0.5 decreased as
their age increased.
Conclusions: These curves represent the first waist and
waist height ratio percentiles for Indian children and could
be used as reference values for urban Indian children. We
suggest that for a start, the 75th percentile of waist
circumference from this study be used as an “action point”
for Indian children to identify obesity (as a tautological
argument), while retaining the cut-off of 0.5 for the W/Ht
ratio; however this underlines the need to derive
biologically rational cut-offs that would relate to different
levels of risk for adult cardiovascular disease.
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Keywords
Child, India, Normal values, Obesity, Waist, circumference, Waist-height ratio
Citation
Kuriyan Rebecca, Thomas Tinku, Lokesh Deepa P, Sheth Nishita R, Mahendra Anvesha, Joy Renju, Sumithra S, Bhat Swarnarekhaand, Kurpad Anura V. Waist Circumference and Waist for Height Percentiles in Urban South Indian Children Aged 3-16 Years. Indian Pediatrics. 2011 October; 48(10): 765-771.