Measurement and Definitions of Obesity In Childhood and Adolescence: A field guide for the uninitiated

By H. Sweeting. Nutrix Journal, 2007

602 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper aims to guide readers embarking on the complex literature in respect of childhood and adolescent obesity. It opens with a discussion of definitions of 'obesity' based on overall fat levels and the significance of fat distribution. This is followed by simple descriptions of the various techniques used to measure fat, including density-based, scanning, bioelectrical impedance and anthropometric methods. The paper then turns to 'overweight' and the measurement of weight in relation to height, particularly via body mass index (BMI). While it is a relatively simple measure and a valuable tool, BMI has several disadvantages, which are described. These include a lack of consensus on which values should be used to define 'overweight' or 'obese', with the result that the literature contains a confusing multiplicity of child and adolescent obesity rates.

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f0ba8fe53023d02cb562dcb4e2aa4d98acad7434

Citations in the corpus

• Childhood obesity as a predictor of morbidity in adulthood: a systematic review and meta‐analysis (2016, unknown): “BMI is the most commonly used measure of adiposity, but using BMI to define overweight and obesity has limitations: people with well-developed muscularity but little fat will have a high BMI for example (21).”