ASSOCIATION OF ANTHROPOMETRIC INDEXES AND CARDIO METABOLICRISK FACTORS AMONG OBESE CHILDREN

Background: childhood obesity is associated with many cardio-metabolic risk factors, anddifferent anthropometric measures have been considered to be associated with these risk factors.the aim of this study was to determine the best anthropometric index associated with cardio-metabolic risk factors among obese children and adolescents.methods: this study was conducted by using data of the records of 2064 obese children andadolescents aged 6-18 years. body mass index (bmi), waist circumference (wc), waist- to- hipratio (whr) and waist- to-stature ratio (wsr) were considered as anthropometric indexes. thecardio-metabolic risk factors were total cholesterol (tc), ldl-cholesterol (ldl-c),hdlcholesterol(hdl-c), triglycerides (tg), fasting blood sugar (fbs), diastolic and systolic bloodpressure (sbp and dbp).data were analyzed with spss16 using receiver operator curve (roc)and pearson correlation analyses.results: the prevalence of high ldl -c, tc, tg, fbs, sbp / dbp and low hdl - c was higherin boys than in girls. no single anthropometric index was found to be associated with risk factorsin different sex and age groups. bmi, wc and wsr but not whr had significant correlationwith tc, ldl - c, tg, and fbs, whereas hdl - c had no significant correlation with anthropometricindexes.conclusion: our results showed that in spite of all its limitations in differentiating fat massand obesity pattern, bmi can be considered as a useful anthropometric index for predicting cardio-metabolic risk factors in obese children and adolescents. it may be clinically useful in pediatricpopulation to routinely use wc and wsr -but not whr- as a screening tool to identify atriskchildren.