Waist circumference distribution of Chinese school-age children and adolescents

Waist circumference (WC), a proxy measure of central body fat, is a better predictor than overall body fat for cardiovascular risk factors in both adults and children. WC cutoffs have been established in many countries, but the national WC reference has not been developed in China.

To study the distribution of WC in a representative group of Chinese children for establishing Chinese WC cutoff points.

Cross-sectional data obtained from 15 mainland provinces and Hong Kong were collected. There were 160,225 children and adolescents aged 7-18 years old in total. The subjects were divided into five regional groups namely costal city, other city, north rural, south rural, and Hong Kong, for analyzing the distribution of WC.

A large variation in WC distribution was found among the five groups for both sexes. Coastal city group had the highest P85 WC values consistently from the early school ages to 18-year-old compared with other groups. In contrast, south rural group had P85 values consistently lagged behind not only the city groups but also the north rural group. Hong Kong group had a high P85 WC at early ages, but because of the smaller increments of WC during adolescence, the P85 curve was gradually exceeded by the north rural groups. Catch-up trend was found in the two rural groups since the peak of puberty. These disparities were caused by not only socioeconomic and urban-rural factors but also north-south differences. Because of the regional variation of WC, a "gradient" prevalence of central obesity was prospected among these groups. Comparisons of WC distributions between the Chinese and the U.S.A. or Netherlands demonstrated the necessary of setting up China's own WC cutoffs. Sex and age-specific percentiles were obtained and smoothed by using LMS method.

The data obtained from this study could be used to develop national WC cutoff points for Chinese children and adolescents.