Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Waist circumference serves as a key indicator of abdominal obesity and predictor of cardiovascular and metabolic risk even in children. Under the current WHO standard methodology, waist circumference is measured midway between the lowest rib and the iliac crest. However, comparison of current and earlier data is complicated as different waist circumference measurement methodologies have been used in the past. For instance, previous Czech studies commonly worked with abdominal circumference measured at the umbilicus level. Therefore, it is necessary to find a formula for comparison of both measurement methods (to enable comparison of waist circumference in Czech 7 years old children who participated in WHO Europe initiated COSI project with older Czech data from National Anthropological Surveys). In our new study we measured both waist circumference and abdominal circumference on a sample of the same age group, using the data to determine an index for recalculation of historic results.

Methods: At the moment, the sample includes 112 children (54 girls, 58 boys). Data were collected during morning classes. Measurements taken included: weight, height, waist circumference, abdominal circumference as specified above, and hip circumference. The relationship between abdominal circumference (AbdC) and waist circumference (WC) was evaluated using polynomial regression.

Results: Sample characteristics (mean±S.D.):

Age 6.95±0.58; AbdC 56.39±4.61; WC 54.50±4.04; BMI 15.53±1.55; BMI Z-score −0.10±0.89.

Polynomial regression analysis of AbdC and WC data provided the following relationship:

Boys: WC =5.88661+0.868423×AbdC.

Girls WC =5.47176+0.866742×AbdC.

Conclusion: We suggest using the above equations to recalculate abdominal circumference to waist circumference for direct comparison of studies that use different measurement methodologies. We are planning to expand the sample to verify our preliminary results and increase the relevance of our conclusions.

Supported by grant of the Czech Ministry of Health IGA NS 9832-4 and project CZ.2.17/1.1.00/32386

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This work was supported, however funding details unavailable.