Page 41 - IJPS-4-2

International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Adolescent obesity by different growth

charts and its efficacy with central

adiposity among school-age children in

Mumbai

Anita Patil , Priti Patil , Prashant Bhandarkar *
1
3
2
1 Deonar West Dispensary, Medical Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai,
India,
2 Department of Medical Statistics, Medical Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Mumbai, India,
3 Department of Medical Statistics, Medical Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Mumbai, India

Abstract: Adolescent obesity can be defined using various age- and sex-specific growth
charts. In addition to general obesity, central adiposity is also crucially important. This paper
ARTICLE INFO
aims to study the efficacy of central adiposity with general obesity using different growth
Received: June 26, 2018 charts recommendations. A cross-sectional study was conducted among school-age children in
Accepted: August 20, 2018 Mumbai. Anthropometric data were obtained from 1349 adolescents aged 9–15 years. Growth
Published: August 29, 2018 charts of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP), International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), and

*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR World Health Organization (WHO) were used to classify overweight and obese status among
each of the participants. Central obesity indices such as the waist circumference (WC), the
Prashant Bhandarkar waist to height ratio (WHtR), and the waist to hip ratio (WHR) were calculated. The efficacy of
Department of Medical Statistics, each of central obesity indices was checked with overweight and obesity status. The receivers
Medical Division, Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre, Mumbai – 94, operating characteristics curves were drawn to check the efficacy of central obesity indices.
India. prashant_bhandarkar@ According to IAP, IOTF, and WHO chart, the prevalence rates of overweight and obese among
yahoo.com the sampled adolescents were 35.9%, 27.0%, and 25.0%, respectively, while, 26.5%, 26.3%,
and 31% were found to be centrally obese as per WC, WHtR, and WHR, respectively. The
CITATION
values of area under curve for WC and WHtR were found between 0.857 and 0.942 for all three
Patil A, Patil P, Bhandarkar P methods, while the corresponding values were between 0.611 and 0.689, indicating that WHR
(2018). Adolescent obesity by is a less robust indicator. We conclude that the central obesity status appears to be an efficient
different growth charts and its measure to identify the general obesity status irrespective of growth chart recommendations.
efficacy with central adiposity WHtR and WC are found to be more robust indicators of general obesity.
among school-age children in
Mumbai. International Journal of Keywords: adolescent obesity; central adiposity; growth chart; India; Mumbai;
Population Studies, 4(2):35-42.
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v4i2.844 obesity; overweight; school-age children
Copyright: © 2018 Patil A,
Patil P, Bhandarkar P. This 1. Introduction
is an Open Access article st
distributed under the terms of the Childhood obesity has become one of the alarming public health concerns in 21 century.
Creative Commons Attribution- The severity of this issue is widespread across the globe, steadily affecting not only
NonCommercial 4.0 International high-income countries but also low- and lower middle-income countries (World Health
License (http://creativecommons. Organization [WHO], 2016). Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese into
org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), their adulthood and more likely to develop non-communicable diseases such as diabetes
permitting all noncommercial use,
distribution, and reproduction and cardiovascular diseases at a younger age (WHO, 2016). Abdominal obesity is one of
in any medium, provided the the strong predictors of high blood pressure, cardiovascular, and metabolic risk factors
original work is properly cited. (Goran and Gower, 1999; Casonatto, Ohara, Giuliano, et al., 2011; Jagadesan, Harish,

International Journal of Population Studies | 2018, Volume 4, Issue 2 35