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Forget BMI – here’s the best way to measure childhood obesity
Measure your children’s waist rather than their weight to see if they are fat, scientists have said.
A child’s waist-to-height ratio is a more useful way to measure fat in children than the traditional body mass index (BMI) method, a new study has revealed.
Experts analysed 7,237 children aged nine and followed them for 15 years, measuring waist-to-height ratios and BMIs at nine, 11, 15 and 24 years old.
The researchers concluded that waist measurements “detected excess fat mass and distinguished fat mass from muscle mass in children and adolescents more accurately than BMI”.
Children of the 90s study
BMI has been the go-to tool for calculating if people of all ages are obese or overweight for more than a decade.
The study, called the Bristol project and part of the Children of the 90s study, was carried out by the universities of Bristol, Exeter and Eastern Finland.
Their findings could be the first step towards changing the guidelines to measure fat in children, with researchers calling it critical to accurately detect obesity in young people.
Rates of obesity among 10 and 11-year-olds in England have soared since the Covid pandemic.
More than two in five children in Year 6 are now overweight or obese.
‘Severe complications’
Prof Julian Hamilton-Shield, a consultant paediatrician at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, told the BBC that his weight management clinic was now seeing a lot more patients with obesity-related diseases.
“We are seeing more severe levels of obesity and we are seeing more severe complications,” he said.
“So in order to be able to pick that up, we need to have good measures that tell us more about people’s health.”
The study did not look at adults so could not say whether it was more effective for them as well, but others have criticised BMI because, for example, it would say a rugby player with large muscle masswas obese.
‘Parents should not be discouraged’
Prof Andrew Agbaje, the lead author, from the University of Eastern Finland, said waist-circumference-to-height ratio was an inexpensive way to determine excess fat mass without implicating muscle mass.
“This study provides novel information that would be useful in updating future childhood obesity guidelines and policy statements,” he said.
“The average waist-circumference-to-height ratio in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood is 0.45; it does not vary with age and among individuals like BMI.
“Parents should not be discouraged by the BMI or weight of their children, but can inexpensively confirm whether the weight is due to increase in excess fat by examining their child’s waist-circumference-to-height ratio.”
- https://www.msn.com/en-my/health/other/forget-bmi-here-s-the-best-way-to-measure-childhood-obesity/ar-BB1jTt1w?ocid=00000000
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