Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2014

Publication Title

ISRN Obesity

Volume

2014

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate classification accuracy of NC and compare it with body mass index (BMI) in identifying overweight/obese US children. Methods. Data were collected from 92 children (boys: 61) aged 7 to 13 over a 2-year period. NC, BMI, and percent of body fat (BF%) were measured in each child and their corresponding cut-off values were applied to classify the children as being overweight/obese. Classification accuracy of NC and BMI was systematically investigated for boys and girls in relation to true overweight/obesity categorization as assessed with a criterion measure of BF% (i.e., Bod Pod). Results. For boys, Cohen’s k (0.25), sensitivity (38.1%), and specificity (85.0%) of NC were smaller in comparison with Cohen’s k (0.57), sensitivity (57.1%), and specificity (95.0%) of BMI in relation to BF% categorization. For girls, Cohen’s k (0.45), sensitivity (50.0%), and specificity (91.3%) of NC were smaller in comparison with Cohen’s k (0.52), sensitivity (50.0%), and specificity (95.7%) of BMI. Conclusion. NC measurement was not better than BMI in classifying childhood overweight/obesity and, for boys, NC was inferior to BMI. Pediatricians and/or pediatric researchers should be cautious or wary about incorporating NC measurements in their pediatric care and/or research.

Comments

Copyright © 2014 Youngwon Kim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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