Comparing three body mass index classification systems to assess overweight and obesity in children and adolescents Comparación de tres sistemas de clasificación de los índices de masa corporal para evaluar el sobrepeso y la obesidad en niños y adolescentes

• Main Authors: Ines Gonzalez-Casanova, Olga L. Sarmiento, Julie A. Gazmararian, Solveig A. Cunningham, Reynaldo Martorell, Michael Pratt, Aryeh D. Stein
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2013
• Subjects: Adolescente; índice de masa corporal; niño; sobrepeso; obesidad; Organización Mundial de la Salud; Colombia; América Latina; Adolescent; body mass index; child; overweight; obesity; World Health Organization; Latin America; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/3dd3432068094089a8820343ebbbfaab

OBJECTIVE: To compare the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) 2005, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2000, and World Health Organization (WHO) 2007 body mass index (BMI) classification systems in terms of prevalence estimation and association with demographic factors. METHODS: The 18 265 children and adolescents ages 5 to 18 years (mean = 11.2 years, standard deviation = 3.9 years) in the nationally representative Colombian National Nutrition Survey of 2005 were classified as overweight or obese according to IOTF, CDC, and WHO criteria. Prevalence estimates were compared according to each system and associations with age, sex, socioeconomic status, and population density were tested. RESULTS: Prevalence estimates of combined overweight and obesity differed by system (males: IOTF = 8.5%, CDC = 10.8%, WHO = 14.1%; females: IOTF = 14.6%, CDC = 13.8%, WHO = 17.1%; P < 0.001). The association between combined overweight and obesity and age and sex varied by system. The odds of having overweight and obesity in children (5 to 10 years) compared with adolescents (11 to 18 years) were: IOTF, odds ratio (OR) = 0.87 and 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.77-0.98; CDC, OR = 1.27 and CI = 1.14-1.42; WHO, OR = 1.21 and CI = 1.08-1.35. The values for females compared with males were: IOTF, OR = 1.84 and CI = 1.6-2.10; CDC, OR = 1.33 and CI = 1.17-1.51; WHO, OR = 1.25 and CI = 1.12-1.41. CONCLUSIONS: There is a lack of consistency among the three main international systems in assessing overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Appreciably different estimates of prevalence and associations with age and sex are obtained depending on which system is used. Future studies should assess how well each system reflects valid measures of body composition. OBJETIVO: Comparar los sistemas de clasificación de los índices de masa corporal (IMC) del Grupo de Trabajo Internacional sobre la Obesidad (IOTF) de 2005, de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC) de 2000, y de la Organización ...