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Methodological issues in the anthropometric assessment of Hmong children in the United States
Author(s) -
Clarkin Patrick F.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.20438
Subject(s) - overweight , anthropometry , body mass index , hum , percentile , medicine , obesity , demography , skinfold thickness , gerontology , mathematics , art , statistics , sociology , performance art , art history
Abstract The effectiveness of the body mass index (BMI; kg/m 2 ) in assessing overweight/obesity may be diminished in populations of short stature. In a sample ( n = 79) of Hmong refugee children in the United States, of age 4–11 years, median z scores for height, BMI, and the triceps skinfold were −1.04 z , +0.53 z , and +0.18 z , respectively. Further, 41.7% of children were above the NHANES 85th percentile for BMI‐for‐age, categorizing them as overweight/obese. Assessment of obesity by other established criteria for children, such as the triceps skinfold and body fat percentage, produced significantly lower estimates than did BMI. This is consistent with patterns found in other stunted populations, suggesting that BMI be employed in conjunction with other methods when assessing overweight/obesity in these groups. Finally, although stunting and overweight/obesity were both common in this study, at the individual level height z scores were positively correlated to z scores of various measures of adiposity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 17:787–795, 2005.© 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.