Cut-offs Of The Anthropometric Indices For Screening Excess Fat Among Chinese Boys

Abstract

In large-scale population surveys and public health screenings, the use of simple anthropometric indices has become popular for identifying children and adolescents who are overweight and obesity. The cut-off points for childhood obesity using anthropometric indices were determined using a statistical approach. The appropriate solution of setting appropriate cut-offs for childhood obesity should be based on the relationship between %BF and anthropometric measurements. PURPOSE: The aim of the present study is to determine appropriate gender-specific body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist for height ratio (WHtR), and weight-for-height cut-offs in screening excess body fat among Chinese boys. METHODS: A total of 1135 Chinese boys aged 9-19 years old participated in the study. %BF was assessed by TanitaTBF-543BIA analyser, excess body fat was defined as over 25% body fat. ROC analysis was used to identify the optimum cut-off points of different indices for screening excess fat. RESULTS: To achieve an absolute number of misclassifications, BMI, PWH, WC, and WHtR cut-offs in screening excessive body fat should be set to 92.3th, 132.6%, 87.4th percentile, and 81.5th percentile. These cut-offs should be set to 85.0th, 118.4%, 80.2th percentile, and 72.4th percentile. CONCLUSIONS: Diagnostic performances of the anthropometric indices in screening excessive body fat can be improved by setting appropriate cut-offs among Chinese boys. The results suggest that further studies should be targeted toward defining local population and ethnic-specific cut-off for childhood obesity using health-related excess body fat.