The ever increasing epidemics of overweight and obesity in school children may be one of the reasons of the growing numbers of children with incorrect body posture. The purpose of the study was the assessment of the prevalence of incorrect body posture in children and adolescents with overweight and obesity in Poznań, Poland. The population subject to study consisted of 2732 boys and girls aged 3–18 with obesity, overweight, and standard body mass. The assessment of body mass was performed based on BMI, adopting Cole’s cutoff values. The evaluation of body posture was performed according to the postural error chart based on criteria complied by professor Dega. The prevalence rates of postural errors were significantly higher among children and adolescents with overweight and obesity than among the group with standard body mass. In the overweight group, it amounted to 69.2% and in the obese group to 78.6%. Conclusion: The most common postural deviations in obese children and adolescents were valgus knees and flat feet. Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, predisposing to higher incidence of some types of postural errors, call for prevention programs addressing both health problems. What is Known: • The increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents has drawn attention to additional health complications which may occur in this population such as occurrence of incorrect body posture. What is New: • The modified chart of postural errors proved to be an effective tool in the assessment of incorrect body posture.• This chart may be used in the assessment of posture during screening tests and prevention actions at school.

Context No universal waist circumference (WC) percentile cutoffs used have been proposed for screening central obesity in children and adolescents. Objective To develop international WC percentile cutoffs for children and adolescents with normal weight based on data from 8 countries in different global regions and to examine the relation with cardiovascular risk. Design and Setting We used pooled data on WC in 113,453 children and adolescents (males 50.2%) aged 4 to 20 years from 8 countries in different regions (Bulgaria, China, Iran, Korea, Malaysia, Poland, Seychelles, and Switzerland). We calculated WC percentile cutoffs in samples including or excluding children with obesity, overweight, or underweight. WC percentiles were generated using the general additive model for location, scale, and shape (GAMLSS). We also estimated the predictive power of the WC 90th percentile cutoffs to predict cardiovascular risk using receiver operator characteristics curve analysis based on data from 3 countries that had available data (China, Iran, and Korea). We also examined which WC percentiles linked with WC cutoffs for central obesity in adults (at age of 18 years). Main Outcome Measure WC measured based on recommendation by the World Health Organization. Results We validated the performance of the age- and sex-specific 90th percentile WC cutoffs calculated in children and adolescents (6-18 years of age) with normal weight (excluding youth with obesity, overweight, or underweight) by linking the percentile with cardiovascular risk (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.69 for boys; 0.63 for girls). In addition, WC percentile among normal weight children linked relatively well with established WC cutoffs for central obesity in adults (eg, AUC in US adolescents: 0.71 for boys; 0.68 for girls). Conclusion The international WC cutoffs developed in this study could be useful to screen central obesity in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years and allow direct comparison of WC distributions between populations and over time.

Background Several distributions of country-specific blood pressure (BP) percentiles by sex, age and height for children and adolescents have been established worldwide. However, there are no globally unified BP references for defining elevated BP in children and adolescents, which limit international comparisons of prevalence of pediatric elevated BP. We aimed to establish international BP references for children and adolescents using seven nationally representative data (China, India, Iran, Korea, Poland, Tunisia and USA). Methods and Results Data on BP for 52,636 non-overweight children and adolescents aged 6–19 years were obtained from seven large nationally representative cross-sectional surveys in China, India, Iran, Korea, Poland, Tunisia, and USA. BP values were obtained with certified mercury sphygmomanometers in all seven countries, using standard procedures for BP measurement. Smoothed BP percentiles (50th, 90th, 95th and 99th) by age and height were estimated using the Generalized Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) model. BP values were similar between males and females until the age of 13 years and were higher in males than females thereafter. Compared to BP level of the 90th and 95th percentiles of the U.S. Fourth Report at median height, systolic BP of the corresponding percentiles of these international references was lower while diastolic BP was similar. Conclusions These international BP references will be a useful tool for international comparison of the prevalence of elevated BP in children and adolescents and may help identify hypertensive youths in diverse populations.