Waist-to-height ratio and its associations with body mass index in a sample of Tuscan children in primary school

• Main Authors: Francesca Santomauro (Author), Chiara Lorini (Author), Francesca Pieralli (Author), Giuditta Niccolai (Author), Paola Picciolli (Author), Stefania Vezzosi (Author), Guglielmo Bonaccorsi (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: BMC, 2017-06-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.1186/s13052-017-0372-x; 1824-7288
• Keywords: Waist-to-height ratio; Percentiles; Body mass index; Waist circumference; Children; Pediatrics; RJ1-570
• Source: Italian Journal of Pediatrics, Vol 43, Iss 1, Pp 1-6 (2017)

Abstract Background Visceral obesity in children increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. To evaluate overweight children, in addition to Body Mass Index (BMI), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) can be used to predict cardiometabolic risk. The goal of this study is to describe WHtR in a sample of Tuscan children. Methods A sample of children living in the province of Pistoia, Tuscany, was measured for the following anthropometric parameters: weight, height, and waist circumference. BMI and WHtR were calculated. For the latter indicator, a threshold of 0.5 was considered as a cardiovascular risk predictor. The subjects were classified into underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese using Cole's cut-offs. Results The number of children enrolled were 1575 (821 males; 754 females), aged 6-11 years. Of them, 64.3% were normal weight, 4.9% underweight, 22.3% overweight, and 8.5% obese. Moreover, 12.8% had a WHtR ≥0.5 (85.7% males; 88.7% females). The average WHtR value was 0.45 ± 0.045, and was significantly different as per gender (F = 0.45 vs. M = 0.46). WHtR was significantly correlated with BMI (r = 0.766). Conclusion The average WHtR value was in line with previous studies conducted among children of similar age groups. Large-scale perspective studies are needed to validate the Italian WHtR cut-offs for children.