Reference curves and cut-off values for anthropometric indices of adiposity of affluent Asian Indian children aged 3-18 years

Background: Asian Indians as an ethnic group are at particularly high risk of insulin resistance and central obesity. It is now emerging convincingly that these disorders begin in childhood. No satisfactory reference curves and cut-off points for overall or central adiposity exist for Indian children. Aim: To present reference curves and age-and sex-specific cut-off points for the body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) of affluent Asian Indian children. Subjects and methods: Cole's LMS method was applied to longitudinal data on a cohort of 320 affluent, physically active children representing the five major geographical regions of India to derive smoothed BMI and WC centile curves. Age-and sex-specific cut-off points for overall and central adiposity were derived by identifying centiles analogous to adult Asian Indian cut-off values. Results: Adult BMI cut-offs for overweight/obesity corresponded to the 87(th)/96(th) and the 82(nd)/93(rd) centiles in boys and girls, respectively. Adult WC cut-offs for men and women corresponded to the 95(th) and 96(th) centiles in boys and girls, respectively. Age- and sex-specific BMI and WC cut-off points for Asian Indian children aged 3-18 years are described for the first time. Conclusions: These reference data could be used to identify affluent Asian Indian children with an elevated risk of developing obesity-related disorders and provide a baseline for future studies.