Central adiposity in 9-and 15-year-old Swedish children from the European Youth Heart Study

The aim of this study was to provide percentile values for several indices of central adiposity in 9- and 15-year-old Swedish children from the European Youth Heart Study (n=1 075). Age- and sex-specific percentiles for waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-height ratio and waist-to-hip ratio were provided. No significant differences were found in the proportion of individuals with a high waist-to-height ratio (using the 0.500 cut-off) between age or sex groups. The percentile values for waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio provided in this paper, together with data from other cohorts, could help to establish international criteria for defining central obesity. For comparative purposes, future studies reporting reference data for waist circumference and/or waist-to-height ratio, should also report age- and sex-specific height values. More studies involving children of different ages and from different regions in Scandinavia are needed.