Age-dependent percentile for waist circumference for Japanese children based on the 1992–1994 cross-sectional national survey data

Abstract

The aim of this study was to set forth an age-dependent percentile for waist circumference of Japanese children and to compare the reference with data from other countries. We utilized the 1992-1994 cross-sectional national survey data on waist circumference as measured at two benchmark sites in 10,614 Japanese children (5,851 boys, 4,763 girls) aged 6.0-18.0 years for constructing the reference by the LMS method. Japanese children had smaller waist circumference percentile values as compared to those of Dutch and US children, but had comparable or larger percentile values as compared to those of UK children. We suspect that the observed ethnic differences may be in part due to the differences in benchmark in waist circumference measurements in each country. We present for the first time an age-dependent percentile for waist circumference for Japanese children. It is mandatory to standardize a benchmark site for waist circumference for more meaningful international comparison.

Waist circumference percentiles for 7- to 17-year-old Turkish children and adolescents

“…Katzmarzyk [17] suggested a cut-off point based on the age-and sex-specific 90th or 95th percentile. Others found an increased risk of adverse risk factors associated with the metabolic syndrome based on the 75th [28] and 70th percentile [24] Our 50th percentile curve was compared with four other countries in different geographical locations [10,22,18,16]. The 50th percentile curve of Turkish boys' and girls' WC was higher than Japanese and British children both in the prepubertal and pubertal period.…”

“…Figures 2 and 3 show the median curves (50th percentile) for WC in five data sets by sex from 7 to 17 years. The Australian, British, Bogalusa and Japanese data were chosen to represent different continents [10,16,18,22]. The reason why we made comparison with these countries is that we consider that they represent different geographical regions in the world.…”

“…within sex were calculated by SPSS version 13.0 (Chicago, IL, USA). The median curves of Turkish children were compared with four other countries: Australia, the UK, USA (Bogalusa) and Japan [10,16,18,22]. Table 1 presents the weighted means and standard deviations for WC by age and sex of the Turkish children.…”

“…WC was measured using a non-elastic tape with the subject in a standing position. The abdominal circumference midway between the lowest rib and the top of the iliac crest at the end of expiration was measured to obtain the WC1 [16].…”

Reference curves for BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio for Azorean adolescents (Portugal)

“…For children and adolescents, there are no internationally accepted cut-off values; however, WC centile charts have been developed for children and adolescents in some countries (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36) .…”