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- Title
Standard obesity cut points based on BMI percentiles do not equally correspond to body fat percentage across racial/ethnic groups in a nationally representative sample of children and adolescents.
- Authors
Affuso, O.; Bray, M. S.; Fernandez, J. R.; Casazza, K.
- Abstract
Objective: Although fat mass and body mass index (BMI) are strongly correlated, BMI may not consistently characterize adiposity across racial/ethnic groups of children. The objective of this study was to determine if there are racial/ethnic differences in the body fat by BMI percentile among a nationally representative sample of non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Mexican American children and adolescents. Methods: Data from a nationally representative sample of 8-19 year old children and adolescents in the US were derived from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001-2004. The sample included 5743 children and adolescents who had both anthropometric and body composition data. Results: At the same BMI percentile, non-Hispanic Blacks have a significantly lower percent body fat compared to non-Hispanic Whites and Mexican Americans. Regression analysis indicated that Black boys and girls had significantly lower percent body fat compared to the other groups after controlling for weight status. Conclusions: Our results suggest that using the same BMI percentile cut-points to define overweight and obesity for all racial/ethnic groups may lead to misclassification of obesity status. While BMI is an assumed surrogate for adiposity, variations in body composition by race/ethnicity, underscore a need for additional comprehensive assessment more reflective of health risk as values >85th percentile may not represent a similar risk among all individuals. Our observations suggest that the utility of BMI percentile cut-points varies by race/ethnicity and using the current cut-points as a screening tool may mask different etiological contributors to health risk factors in racial/ethnic populations.
- Subjects
UNITED States; BODY mass index; ETHNIC groups; HUMAN body composition; BODY weight; HEALTH risk assessment; REGRESSION analysis; HEALTH &; Nutrition Examination Survey
- Publication
International Journal of Body Composition Research, 2010, Vol 8, Issue 4, p117
- ISSN
1479-456X
- Publication type
Article