Exploring an algorithm to harmonize International Obesity Task Force and World Health Organization child overweight and obesity prevalence rates.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and World Health Organization (WHO) body mass index (BMI) cut-offs are widely used to assess child overweight, obesity and thinness prevalence, but the two references applied to the same children lead to different prevalence rates.

Objectives

To develop an algorithm to harmonize prevalence rates based on the IOTF and WHO cut-offs, to make them comparable.

Methods

The cut-offs are defined as age-sex-specific BMI z-scores, for example, WHO +1 SD for overweight. To convert an age-sex-specific prevalence rate based on reference cut-off A to the corresponding prevalence based on reference cut-off B, first back-transform the z-score cut-offs zA and zB to age-sex-specific BMI cut-offs, then transform the BMIs to z-scores

SUBMITTER: Cole TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9285550 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature