Waist to height ratio for recording the risks of overweight in schoolchildren in Kerala

Abstract

The prevalence of overweight/obesity among 6000 children at 7-12 years was monitored using the established methodologies. Prevalence rates obtained using percentiles were proximate to that using waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) 0.50 and were on par with the reported rates. The prevalence were worked out with WHTR values from 0.45 to 0.53 and compared with percentiles. The minimum per cent deviation of 5.4 was observed at WHTR of 0.48 (against 6.4% at WHTR 0.50) and further the deviation at this point was distributed near-uniformly (2.6% above and 2.8% below the WHTR), suggesting that this is the optimum cut-off point for children in this region. ROC analysis against percentiles has given a higher sensitivity of 0.630 at WHTR 0.48 in this region and area under ROC curve was 0.827 at WHTR 0.48.