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Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Neck Circumference to Assess Obesity in Preschool Children
Meda Kondolot1, Duygu Horoz, Serpil Poyrazoğlu
1Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Social Pediatrics Unit, Kayseri, Turkey
Insights
Neck circumference (NC) can help identify obesity in preschool children. Local reference data for NC percentiles are crucial for accurate obesity assessment in this age group.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric endocrinology
- Anthropometry
- Public health
Background:
- Limited data exist on using neck circumference (NC) to assess obesity in preschool children.
- Establishing reference data is essential for accurate obesity screening.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide neck circumference (NC) percentiles for Turkish preschool children.
- To determine NC cut-off levels for obesity assessment in this population.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Anthropometry of Turkish Children aged 0-6 years (ATCA-06) study.
- Included 1766 children aged 2-6 years from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Applied LMS method for centile curves and ROC analysis for cut-off points.
Main Results:
- Mean NC was higher in males than females.
- Statistically significant obesity cut-off values were found for most ages and genders.
- Turkish preschool children exhibited slightly higher NC percentiles than European counterparts, particularly before adiposity rebound.
Conclusions:
- Neck circumference (NC) shows potential as a tool for defining obesity in preschool children.
- Emphasizes the importance of local reference data due to ethnic and other influencing factors.
Objective:
Limited information is available about the use of neck circumference (NC) to assess obesity in preschool children. This study aims to provide NC percentiles and determine the cut-off levels of NC as a measure to assess obesity in preschool children.
Methods:
The data were obtained from the Anthropometry of Turkish Children aged 0-6 years (ATCA-06) study database. A total of 21 family health centers were chosen and children aged 2-6 years old from all socioeconomic levels were randomly selected from the lists of district midwives; 1766 children (874 male and 892 female; 88.3% of sample size) were included in the study. The smoothed centile curves of NC were constructed by the LMS method. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to calculate cut-off points for NC using body mass index ≥95th percentile.
Results:
Mean NC was greater in males than females. Cut-off values for obesity were found to be statistically significant in both genders other than 3 years old boys. The NC percentiles of Turkish preschool children were slightly greater than those of other European preschool children in both genders. This difference disappeared around the adiposity rebound period. The 97th percentile values for Turkish preschool children continue to be greater in both genders.
Conclusion:
NC may be useful to define obesity in preschool children. Since ethnic and various other factors may have a role in incidence of obesity, local reference data are important in assessment of obesity.
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