Early Warning Signs of Obesity
Recently there were many postings on the importance of screening for childhood obesity in schools, at primary care physician's office etc. using BMI. BMI is a difficult measure and parents are unable to use BMI directly to monitor Child's growth and weight gain at present.
Last week there was lot of emphasis given to neck circumferences (NC) in the media as a measure for replacing BMI. However this conclusion was drawn simply based on the significant correlation observed between BMI and NC. No scientific evidence was cited for significant association between NC and health risks. Furthermore, NC also varies with gender and age. Therefore, it would be very hard to come out with threshold values for each gender and age.
Why bother using BMI or NC when we have access to weight limits charts (color coded) for each gender, age and height for children and parent can record their child's health and medical information on these charts and look for early warning signs with the help of the pediatricians. School officials need not involved in monitoring Child’Äôs growth.
I strongly believe that parents can influence the outcome of the childhood obesity epidemic, but they often miss the early signs of their children becoming overweight.
The simple color coded charts I developed (Press release: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uonr-npd120309.php) will provide the necessary tools for parents to monitor the growth patterns of their children and detect the early signs of obesity without computing BMI. The childhood BMI charts used by pediatricians are not user-friendly and not easily understandable by everyone. Thus, parents can prevent their child from becoming overweight by tracking their child’Äôs growth (using the user-friendly charts) and by seeking professional advice and appropriate intervention if necessary. In addition, parents can record their child’Äôs health (0 to 20 years), medical records, and family health history directly in these charts and teach their teenage children to monitor their own growth.
More information about the availability of these charts cab be found at the website: www.max-weight-limit.com and in this pdf flyer.
George Fernandez, PhD
Professor of Applied Statistics
Director / Center for Research Design and Analysis SFB 100F