ABSTRACT
Anthropometric methods have enjoyed widespread acceptability for the evaluation of overweight and obesity (Huang and Chiang, 1987). However, comparisons of the prevalence of obesity in various parts of the world to date have been difficult as the criteria for classification has not been homogeneous (Widhalm, 1985) and the reference values have varied. What is deemed to be overweight in one country may be normal weight in another. Substantive efforts have resulted in the ability to define more accurately the level of development and nutritional status during growth (Sundaram, Ahuja, and Ramachandran, 1988). Despite considerable recent progress, global consent on selected approaches for the evaluation of overweight and obesity has not been reached due to some discrepancies between classification systems (Neovius et al., 2004).
