Accuracy of body mass index cutoffs for classifying obesity in Chilean children and adolescents

3Citations
Citations of this article
62Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Objective: To determine the accuracy of two international Body Mass Index (BMI) cut-offs for classifying obesity compared to the percentage of fat mass (%FM) assessed by Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) in a Chilean sample of children and adolescents; Material and Methods: The subjects studied included 280 children and adolescents (125 girls and 155 boys) aged 8 to 17 years. Weight and height were measured. The BMI was calculated. Two international references (IOFT and WHO) were used as cut-off points. The %FM was assessed by DXA. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to assess the performance of BMI in detecting obesity on the basis of %FM; Results: A high correlation was observed between the %FM measured by the DXA and the Z-scores of IOTF and WHO scores in the Chilean adolescents separated by sex (r = 0.78–0.80). Differences occurred in both references (IOFT and WHO) in relation to the criteria (p < 0.001). Both references demonstrated a good ability to predict sensitivity (between 84% and 93%) and specificity (between 83% and 88%) in both sexes of children and adolescents; Conclusions: A high correlation was observed between the Z-score of the BMI with the percentage of fat determined by the DXA. Despite this, the classifications using the different BMI cut-off points showed discrepancies. This suggests that the cut-off points selected to predict obesity in this sample should be viewed with caution.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Gómez-Campos, R., Langer, R. D., De Fátima Guimarães, R., Martini, M. C. S., Cossio-Bolaños, M., De Arruda, M., … Gonçalves, E. M. (2016). Accuracy of body mass index cutoffs for classifying obesity in Chilean children and adolescents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13050472

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free