ABSTRACT
The epidemic of pediatric obesity has caused serious concern all over the world as the prevalence has increased alarmingly over time, not only in developed countries but also in developing countries [1, 2]. Furthermore, there is increasing recognition that childhood obesity is occurring at progressively younger ages [3]. Recent publications have highlighted the challenge of defining childhood obesity in a manner that is both evidence based as well as uniformly applicable across different settings [4]. In general, a statistical definition using BMI for age is used wherein >85th percentile is defined as overweight and >95th percentile as obesity [5]. In contrast, the WHO defines obesity as BMI for age Z-score >3 and overweight as Z-score >2. A large-scale multicentric study calculated BMI in children and adolescents and extrapolated the cut-off values for adult obesity (BMI > 30) and overweight (BMI > 25), to the corresponding values in childhood and adolescence. Based on this, they were able to tabulate age-and gender-specifi c cut-off values for children and adolescents [6]. At the present time, waist circumference is not used routinely to defi ne obesity in children and adolescents.
