Diagnostic comparison of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and International Obesity Task Force criteria for obesity classification in South African children.

Violet Kankane Moselakgomo,Marlise Van Staden

doi:10.4102/phcfm.v9i1.1383

Violet Kankane Moselakgomo, Marlise Van Staden

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v9i1.1383

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Abstract

BackgroundThis study was designed to estimate overweight and obesity in school children by using contrasting definitions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF).MethodThe sample size consisted of 1361 learners (n = 678 boys; n = 683 girls) aged 9–13 years who were randomly selected from Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces of South Africa. A cross-sectional and descriptive design was used to measure the children’s anthropometric characteristics. Based on height and weight measurements, the children’s body mass index (BMI) was calculated and used to classify them as underweight, overweight and obese. Percentage body fat was calculated from the sum of two skinfolds (i.e. triceps and subscapular). Age-specific BMI, percentage body fat and sum of skinfolds were examined for the boys and girls.ResultsA higher prevalence of overweight and obesity was found in boys and girls when the CDC BMI categories were used. In contrast, the IOTF BMI classifications indicated a strong prevalence of underweight among the children.ConclusionIn contrast to the IOTF index that yielded a greater occurrence of underweight among South African children, the CDC criteria indicated a higher prevalence of obesity and overweight among the same children. Future large-scale surveillance studies are needed to determine the appropriateness of different definitions in order to establish a more reliable indicator for estimating overweight and obesity in South African children.

Highlights

Excessive body fatness has arguably become a paediatric health problem in developed nations
Results of the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 110 indicate that overweight and obesity has been on the rise among children and adolescents, with a higher prevalence noted in girls than in boys (i.e. 16.5% and 7.1% vs 11.5% and 4.7%, for girls and boys, respectively)
The results of the prevalence estimations for each body mass index (BMI) cutoff criteria provided by gender and age in Table 2 revealed that boys had higher prevalence of underweight when International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria (67.9%) were used, compared with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s classification (4.68%)

Summary

Introduction

Excessive body fatness has arguably become a paediatric health problem in developed nations. Excess body fat constitutes a serious risk to health[1], affecting the physiological functions and physical fitness of an individual,[2,3,4,5,6] and could negatively influence physical performance by having deleterious impact on mechanical, metabolic and thermoregulatory attributes of an activity.[7,8] For example, in the United Kingdom, estimates of excessive childhood body fatness have increased from 2.0-fold to 2.8-fold in 10 years.[9] in the United States, overweight or obese children are at risk of developing cardio-metabolic complications.[10,11]. This study was designed to estimate overweight and obesity in school children by using contrasting definitions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF)

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion