Objective: To determine the age-specific interrelation between body mass index (BMI) and other obesity related indicators and to determine age and gender-differences of anthropometric characteristics in the Pakistani children aged 2-19 years.
Methodology: Anthropometric measurements included height, weight and body circumferences and their derived indices BMI, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were taken from a cross-sectional sample of 10782 Pakistani children, aged 2-19 years during March to June, 2016. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test and the Pearson correlation co-efficient.
Results: BMI had a strongest positive and significant correlation with mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) in all age-groups of boys and girls. BMI had weakest correlation with WHR in all age-groups for both genders. The mean comparisons between both genders showed that boys had a higher mean value in various age-groups than those of girls had with few exceptions.
Conclusion: There was considerable interrelationship among different anthropometric measures in boys and girls of aged 2 to 19 years. However, the MUAC had strong positive correlation with BMI in both genders and MUAC therefore, could be proposed as a simple and easy index to discriminate children and adolescent with elevated BMI.
Key words: Anthropometry, Body Mass Index, Mid-Upper-Arm Circumference, Head circumference, Waist-to-hip ratio.
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