Title of article:

Body mass index centile charts to assess fatness of British children.

Authors: White EM, Wilson AC, Greene SA, McCowan C, Thomas GE, Cairns AY, Ricketts IW.
Journal: Arch Dis Child, Jan 1995;72(1):38-41

Abstract

Body mass index (BMI) relates weight to height and reflects the shape of a child, but because of age dependency it has not been used conventionally for the estimation of fatness in children. From measurements of Tayside children (n = 34,533) centile charts were constructed for BMI (wt/ht2) from the raw data of height and weight, using Cole's LMS method for normalised growth standards. These data were compared with the only available European BMI charts published from data of French children obtained over a period of 24 years from 1956-79. British children appear to be 'fatter'. Within a subgroup (n = 445) the BMI values were correlated with estimations of body fat, for boys and girls, from skinfold thickness (r = 0.8 and 0.81) and bioelectrical impedance (r = 0.65 and 0.7). The limits of acceptable BMI have yet to be defined.

Comments and Key points

I've included this article in my collection, because it shows charts of body mass index of children, comparing Scottish and French populations.

The French data is older (1956-1979) whereas the Scottish data is newer ( 1989-1991), so the charts really show that recent populations are fatter than older populations.

 

Review & comments by Steven B. Halls, MD, modified: 23-June, 2008, Copyright.
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