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      Waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and waist-to-height ratio reference percentiles for abdominal obesity among Greek adolescents

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          Abstract

          Background

          Indices predictive of adolescent central obesity include waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). Such reference data are lacking for Greek adolescents. The aim of this study was to develop age- and gender-specific WC, WHR and WHtR smoothed reference percentiles for abdominal obesity among Greek adolescents aged 12–17 years, to investigate possible obesity cut-offs of WHR and WHtR and to compare WC percentiles to other adolescent populations.

          Methods

          A representative sample of 1610 high school adolescents (42.2% boys, 57.8% girls; mean age ± sd 14.4 ± 1.72 years) participated in this cross-sectional study in Attica, Greece, in 2013. Weight, height, body mass index (BMI), WC, hip circumference (HC), WHR and WHtR were measured and percentiles were calculated using the LMS method. The relation between WHR, WHtR and general obesity, as defined by the International Obesity Task Force, was investigated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The discriminating power of WHR and WHtR was expressed as area under the curve (AUC). Greek adolescents’ WC measurements at the 50th and 90th percentile were compared with their counterparts’ smoothed percentiles from Norway, Turkey, Poland, South India, Germany and Kuwait.

          Results

          Boys had significantly higher mean in all measures than girls, except for BMI where there was no statistical difference in terms of gender. BMI, WC and HC showed an increasing trend with age. WC leveled off in both genders at the age of 17 years. WHR and WHtR showed a continuous decrease with advancing age. WHtR was a better predictor for general obesity in both boys and girls (AUC 95% CI 0.945-0.992) than the WHR (AUC 95% CI 0.758-0.870); the WHtR cut-off of 0.5 had sensitivity 91% and specificity 95% for both genders and all age groups combined. International comparisons showed that Greek adolescents had relatively high levels of abdominal obesity in early-middle adolescence but this did not persist at the age of 17 years.

          Conclusions

          These reference percentile curves could be used provisionally for early detection of abdominal obesity in Greek adolescents aged 12–17 years; WHtR of 0.5 could also be used as a threshold for obesity in this age group.

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          Most cited references30

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          Waist circumference percentiles in nationally representative samples of African-American, European-American, and Mexican-American children and adolescents.

          To describe and provide estimates of the distribution of waist circumference (WC) according to percentiles in African-, European-, and Mexican-American children, and to test for group differences at different percentiles. Cross-sectional data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) were examined. The sample evaluated included 9713 nonpregnant persons 2 to 18 years of age with measured values of WCs. Age-, sex-, and ethnicity-specific percentiles were estimated via percentile regression. WC measurements increased in a monotonic fashion across ages but at nonconstant rates and in a manner that varied across age and sex. At higher percentiles of the distribution, estimates of WC differ between Mexican-American (MA) and European-American (EA) and between African-American (AA) and European-American (EA), and, in some cases, exceeded the adult cutoff value for obesity-related disease risk at as early as 13 years of age. Age-, sex-, and ethnicity-specific WC percentiles are available for US children and adolescents and can be used as an assessment tool that could impact public health recommendations. Results suggest concern with respect to high WC values among certain ethnic groups.
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            The LMS method for constructing normalized growth standards.

            T. J. Cole (1990)
            It is now common practice to express child growth status in the form of SD scores. The LMS method provides a way of obtaining normalized growth centile standards which simplifies this assessment, and which deals quite generally with skewness which may be present in the distribution of the measurement (eg height, weight, circumferences or skinfolds). It assumes that the data can be normalized by using a power transformation, which stretches one tail of the distribution and shrinks the other, removing the skewness. The optimal power to obtain normality is calculated for each of a series of age groups and the trend summarized by a smooth (L) curve. Trends in the mean (M) and coefficient of variation (S) are similarly smoothed. The resulting L, M and S curves contain the information to draw any centile curve, and to convert measurements (even extreme values) into exact SD scores. A table giving approximate standard errors for the smoothed centiles is provided. The method, which is illustrated with US girls' weight data, should prove useful both for the construction and application of growth standards.
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              A study of central fatness using waist-to-height ratios in UK children and adolescents over two decades supports the simple message--'keep your waist circumference to less than half your height'.

              To examine the influence of age and gender on the waist:height ratio (WHTR) in children and to compare changes over time in WHTR, a measure of central fatness in British children. Representative cross-sectional surveys in 1977, 1987 and 1997. Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Survey 1: children aged 5-16 years measured in 1977 (boys) and 1987 (girls) (BSI, n=8135) and Survey 2: children aged 11-16 measured in 1997 (NDNS, n=773). From Survey 1, waist: height ratio related to age and sex and the proportion of children with a WHTR greater than 0.500 (a boundary value suggested for adults). From Survey 2, comparison of WHTR in children with that from Survey 1 and the actual proportion of children with a WHTR greater than 0.500 compared with the expected proportion using the survey 1 as reference. WHTR decreased with age (P<0.01 for trend), with the mean WHTR being significantly lower in girls (P<0.01). WHTR was significantly greater in children in Survey 2 compared with those measured 10 and 20 years earlier in Survey 1 (P<0.0001). The proportion of children where WHTR exceeded the 0.500 boundary value in Survey 2 was 17% of boys and 11.7% of girls (against 5.0 and 1.5%, respectively, in Survey 1, P<0.0001). The increase in WHTR in boys exceeded that in girls. Values of WHTR during the past 10-20 years have increased greatly showing that central fatness in children has risen dramatically. WHTR is more closely linked to childhood morbidity than body mass index (BMI) and we suggest it should be used as an additional or alternative measure to BMI in children as well as adults. A simple public health message that is the same for adults and children of both sexes and all ages could be stated as 'keep your waist circumference to less than half your height'.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                bacopouf@hotmail.com
                vikimiou2003@yahoo.gr
                georgioslandis@yahoo.co.uk
                a.i.rentoumis@gmail.com
                chrousog@exchange.nih.gov
                Journal
                BMC Pediatr
                BMC Pediatr
                BMC Pediatrics
                BioMed Central (London )
                1471-2431
                4 May 2015
                4 May 2015
                2015
                : 15
                : 50
                Affiliations
                Center for Adolescent Medicine and UNESCO Chair in Adolescent Health Care, First Department of Pediatrics, University of Athens Medical School, Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital, 3 Thivon Street, Athens, 115 27 Greece
                Article
                366
                10.1186/s12887-015-0366-z
                4446827
                25935716
                7a228b43-2a49-4e47-bc1a-eb11a55eaaff
                © Bacopoulou et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 29 April 2014
                : 17 April 2015
                Categories
                Research Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2015

                Pediatrics
                percentiles,waist circumference,waist-hip ratio,waist-height ratio,abdominal obesity,greece,adolescents

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