A Comparison between International Obesity Task Force and Center for Disease Control References in Assessment of Overweight and Obesity Among Adolescents in Babol, Northern Iran

OBJECTIVE: This study compares the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) references in assessment of overweight and obesity among Iranian adolescents. METHODS: The data of this study was drawn from a cross sectional study of a representative sample of 1200 adolescents aged 12-17 years in Babol, northern Iran. A standard procedure was used to measure height and weight and the body mass index was calculated. Each subject was classified as overweight and obese based on IOTF cut off values of BMI and CDC references BMI percentile sets by age and sex. The kappa coefficients were estimated for the degree of agreement. RESULTS: In assessment of obesity/overweight prevalence, the CDC and IOTF references produced a similar estimate by age group and sex. The maximum differences was about 1% and the kappa coefficients was 0.96 to 1 (P = 0.001). While for assessment of obesity, the CDC reference produced slightly a higher rate of obesity and the difference in prevalence between the two sets of references was ranged from 1.4% to 3.2% with kappa coefficients: 0.90 to 0.70 (P = 0.001) depending on the age group and sex and a greater difference was observed among younger age group. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest an excellent agreement between the TOTF and CDC references in assessment of overall overweight/obesity prevalence among adolescent boys and girls. While in assessment of obesity prevalence alone the degree of agreement between the two sets of references slightly diminished. Overall, the two references are comparable and the agreement varies a little with respect to age and sex.