Sensitivity and specificity of body mass index-based classification systems for overweight in children 7-10 years old.

• Autor(a) principal: Leal, Danielle Biazzi
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: da Costa, Filipe Ferreira, de Assis, Maria Alice Altenburg
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria & Desempenho Humano (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/rbcdh/article/view/1980-0037.2013v15n3p267

The objective of this study was to compare the sensitivity and specificity of BMI-based classification systems for detecting excess body fat in schoolchildren. A total of 2,795 schoolchildren aged 7 to 10 years were examined. Excess body fat was defined as the standardized residuals of sum of three skinfolds thickness ranking at or above the 90th percentile. The international BMI-based systems recommended by the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and the World Health Organization(WHO-2007) were evaluated on the basis of their sensitivity and specificity for detecting excess body fat and compared with a national BMI reference (Brazil-2006). The positive (LR+) and negative (LR-) likelihood ratios analysis was also used to compare the diagnostic accuracies of the three BMI criteria.The three classification systems presented moderately high sensitivity (78.4-98.6%) and specificity (75.9-91.6%) for both genders. Overall, the three classification systems showed both LR+ and LR- values consistent with adiagnosis of moderate evidence for overweight (LR+ above five and LR- below0.2). The results showed that the three BMI classification systems can be usedas screening instruments of excess body fat. However, the performance of the Brazil-2006 classification system was superior because it showed the best balance between the diagnostic accuracy indices.