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- Title
Prevalence of High-Risk Waist-to-Height Ratio in Young Children.
- Authors
Keefer, D.
- Abstract
BACKGROUND: Recent research (JAMA, 2014) demonstrated a significant drop in the percentage of children (ages 2 to 5 yr. old) who were at or above the 95th percentile of body mass index (BMI) comparing the 2003 to 2012 NHANES datasets (from 13.9% to 8.4%; P = .03). Since waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) may be a better indicator of children's health status, the purpose of this investigation is to determine if the drop in BMI for this population is paralleled by a drop in WHTR. Methods: Data from children and adolescents (N = 741 (2003) & 787 (2012); 2 to 5 years old) who were part of the 2003-2004 and 2011-2012 NHANES datasets were analyzed. Two-Sample t-Tests were used to compare Weight, Height, Waist, BMI and WHTR between the datasets. A z-score test compared the proportion of children found with a higher risk WHTR between the datasets. Results: The results demonstrate a significant decrease between the two sets of data (2003 vs 2012) for Weight (17.7 vs 16.9 kg; P < .001); Height (102.6 vs 101.4 cm; P = .01); Waist Circumference (52.0 vs 50.9; P < .001); BMI (16.6 vs 16.3 kg/m²; P = .004); and WHTR (0.509 vs 0.504; P = .05). In addition, a non-significant difference (P = .06) was noted between the proportion of children (54.2%) who had a high risk WHTR (>0.50) and those whose risk was lower (49.2%) for 2003 and 2012, respectively. Discussion: In concurrence with the aforementioned research, the proportion of the population with a high-risk WHTR decreased between 2003 and 2012. However, this decrease in percent of young children with a high-risk WHTR did not reach a statistically significant level (P = .06), whereas the decrease in proportion of children with high-risk BMI values was significant (P = .03). All variables used to calculate these two measures (WHTR and BMI) also decreased significantly. Future research should document if this trend will continue in future years for young children as well as if the trend will present itself in children who are slightly older than those investigated in this study.
- Subjects
BODY weight; HEALTH status indicators; PROBABILITY theory; STATURE; T-test (Statistics); TIME; BODY mass index; RETROSPECTIVE studies; WAIST circumference; CHILDREN
- Publication
Pediatric Exercise Science, 2016, Vol 28, p42
- ISSN
0899-8493
- Publication type
Article