Waist circumference values in Spanish children—Gender related differences

Abstract

Objective: To obtain reference values of the waist circumference in Spanish children, and to investigate their dependence on age and gender. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: General school-age population. Subjects: A representative sample of the schools in Zaragoza, Spain, was drawn from seven schools. The population selected comprised 1728 children with ages ranging from 6.0±14.9 y. Of the original sample, 368 children (21.29%) were excluded because of chronic diseases or refusal. Finally, 1360 children and adolescents: 701 boys and 659 girls, were studied. Interventions: Waist and hip circumferences were measured with an unelastic tape. Results: Waist circumference tended to be higher in males than in females and this difference was signi®cant after 11.5 y. In general, hip circumference was higher in females than in males (statistically signi®cant differences at 7.5, 10.5, 12.5 and 13.5 y). In general, percentile values of waist circumference were higher in males than in females, especially after 12.5 y. Difference between males and females on percentile 95 at 14.5 y was 7.6 cm. Hip was greater than waist in both sexes, and the two curves run nearly parallel in males. In females, while hip enlarges continuously, waist shows the reverse tendency between 11.5 and 14.5 y. Conclusions: Waist circumference showed higher values in boys than in girls, especially after 11.5 y, and waist values increase with age both in males and females. These ®ndings justify the use of age and gender speci®c reference standards. Sponsorship: This work was supported by grant 216-02 from Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.

An evaluation of patterns of change in total and regional body fat mass in healthy Spanish subjects using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)

“…In Spanish children (aged 6-14.5 years), hip measurements were greater than waist measurements in both sexes, and the two curves run nearly parallel in males. In females, while hip measurements grew continuously, waist measurements had the reverse tendency between the ages of 11.5 and 14.5 (Moreno et al, 1999). Our findings may contribute to the explanation of this fact: %TrFM is larger in males than in females, although the differences in our findings are only significant after the age of 16.…”

“…Studies of waist circumference in children from different countries agree that this variable increases with age for both boys and girls where boys have greater mean waist circumference values than girls at every age (Moreno et al, 1999;McCarty et al, 2001;Katzmarzyk, 2004;Wardle et al, 2006). The study in Spain showed that these differences were especially significant after the age of 11.5 years.…”

Waist circumference and body mass index in Chinese children: cutoff values for predicting cardiovascular risk factors

“…[18][19][20][21] Ethnic differences of WC have been described in adults 22,23 but have not been studied in children, although reference data for WC are available from a number of different countries. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Data for ethnic Chinese children have not previously been reported.…”

The development of waist circumference percentiles in British children aged 5.0–16.9 y

“…To date waist percentile curves have been developed for Italian, Cuban and Spanish children (Zannolli & Morgese, 1996;Martinez et al, 1994;Moreno et al, 1999). In this report we have presented the first working waist percentile curves for British children aged 5.0 -16.9 y, where we have been able to define the mean and distribution of waist circumference at each age.…”

“…Such evidence now suggests that obtaining information on waist circumference in children could be as useful as BMI as a means of identifying the overweight and obese in childhood population studies, and screening those children who could benefit from early dietary and exercise intervention. To these ends, waist circumference percentile curves have been generated for the Italian and Spanish childhood populations (Zannolli & Morgese, 1996;Moreno et al, 1999) but, as yet, no such data have been produced for the UK. We now present in this paper, the first set of working waist circumference percentiles obtained from data collected from British children.…”