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Anthropometric Indices Based on Waist Circumference as Measures of Adiposity in Children

Susana Santos1, Milton Severo1,2, Carla Lopes1,2

  • 1EPIUnit, Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Rua das Taipas, Porto, Portugal.

Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.)
|March 27, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Body fat patterns offer minimal added value over single measures for assessing childhood adiposity. Waist-to-height ratio estimates total fat, while other waist indices indicate central fat, warranting further study for cardiometabolic risk prediction.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Endocrinology
  • Body Composition Analysis
  • Public Health Nutrition

Background:

  • Accurate assessment of childhood adiposity is crucial for identifying health risks.
  • Traditional anthropometric measures and newer body fat patterns require validation against gold standards.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the accuracy of body fat patterns versus single anthropometric measures in assessing body fat in children.
  • To clarify the utility of waist circumference-based indices for measuring adiposity in pediatric populations.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from 2,531 7-year-old children in the Generation XXI birth cohort.
  • Employed whole-body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as the reference standard for body fat assessment.
  • Applied principal component analysis to identify distinct body fat patterns.

Main Results:

  • Two body fat patterns were identified: Pattern 1 (including BMI, fat mass index, waist-to-height ratio) strongly correlated with DXA fat mass index (r=0.85).
  • Pattern 2 (including waist-to-hip, waist-to-thigh, waist-to-weight ratios) moderately correlated with DXA central fat (r=0.35).
  • Body fat patterns showed similar correlations to DXA measures compared to single anthropometric indices.

Conclusions:

  • Body fat patterns provide limited additional value for estimating body fat in children compared to single measures.
  • Waist-to-height ratio serves as a proxy for total body fat.
  • Waist-to-hip, waist-to-thigh, and waist-to-weight ratios appear to reflect central adiposity, with waist-to-weight ratio's predictive potential for cardiometabolic disease risk needing further investigation.
Abstract

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