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Updated: May 10, 2026
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Anthropometric parameters in screening for excess of adiposity in Argentinian and Spanish adolescents: evaluation
María Soledad Mesa1, María Dolores Marrodán, Delia Beatriz Lomaglio
1Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology, Faculty of Biology and.
Background:
Various anthropometric parameters have been proposed for defining overweight in adolescence, but few studies have evaluated their diagnostic accuracy in comparative terms, using samples from different regions.
Aim:
To compare the performance of anthropometric parameters in determining the excess of adiposity in Argentinian and Spanish adolescents.
Subjects And Methods:
The sample is composed of 1781 Argentinian and 1350 Spanish subjects, aged 12-17 years. Excess adiposity was defined as percentage BF in the 90th percentile or higher. ROC curves established the validity of parameters to define excess adiposity.
Results:
Descriptive statistics showed differences between the Argentinian and Spanish samples. ROC curves indicate that all the parameters analysed had, in the Spanish and Argentinian samples, a positive and elevated association with excess of adiposity. The waist-to-height ratio had the highest value of the area under ROC curve (AUC), while conicity index and waist-to-hip ratio had the lowest.
Conclusions:
Differences exist with respect to size and body composition between the Argentinian and Spanish samples. ROC curves reflect a general pattern of variation. Waist-to-hip ratio and conicity index are less desirable in the diagnosis of excess adiposity and the most desirable is waist-to-height ratio.
