[Body mass index. Reference values for 0-45-year-old Danes]

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics
• Public Health
• Anthropometry

Background:

• Establishing accurate body mass index (BMI) reference values is crucial for monitoring child growth and identifying weight status in populations.
• Current Danish reference values for body mass index (BMI) were outdated, necessitating updated data for thes population.
• The study aimed to establish body mass index (weight/height squared [kg/m2], BMI) reference values for 0- to 45-year-old Danes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish current body mass index (BMI) reference values for Danish individuals aged 0 to 45 years.
• To provide updated data for clinical assessment and public health monitoring.
• To compare recent BMI data with established references to identify trends.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a national sample from 1965-1977 (n=29,106) for ages 0-21 years and four Copenhagen samples from 1981-1994 (n=6,000) for ages 6-45 years.
• Employed the LMS (Lambda-Mu-Sigma) method for smoothing and constructing the BMI reference curves by age and sex.
• Compared BMI values from recent cohorts with the generated reference values to evaluate secular trends.

Main Results:

• Danish BMI reference values were constructed and are presented graphically, with downloadable graphs available.
• A significant increase in mean BMI was observed in children and adolescents in more recent samples (SD score 0.19, P = 0.0007).
• Mean BMI remained unchanged in young adults in the more recent samples (SD score 0.01, P = 0.49).

Conclusions:

• Recommends using the new Danish BMI reference values for clinical assessment of children and adolescents.
• Suggests utilizing World Health Organization (WHO) cut-off values for assessing the BMI of Danish adults.
• Highlights the utility of national or international BMI reference values for research purposes, depending on the study's objectives.