Assessment of obesity status in outpatients from three disease states

To assess obesity status in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and various metabolic disorders (MD), through comparison against a) UK reference data and b) contemporary healthy children.

Weight, height, waist circumference (WC), and triceps (TRI) and sub-scapular (SUBS) skinfold thickness were measured in a total of 57 healthy, 49 HIV, 68 MD and 49 CF children. Using published reference data, standard deviation scores (SDS) were calculated.

CF patients had weight, height and BMI SDS significantly below zero. MD patients had height SDS significantly below, and BMI SDS significantly above, zero. Healthy children had BMI SDS significantly above zero. In all three patient groups and healthy children, TRI and WC SDS were significantly above zero. SUBS SDS was also significantly above zero in patients with MD and HIV. WC SDS was greater in patients than in healthy children, but only significantly so for the MD children.

In all three patient groups, even those associated with reduced stature or reduced weight, indices of fatness were significantly increased relative to reference data. The tendency to central fatness was evident in healthy children, but was more extreme in patients, especially those with MD.