Are Japanese obesity criteria useful for screening at risk Japanese? Consideration from anthropometric indices- percentage body fat relationships

Abstract

Both childhood and adult obesity are of serious public health concern in Japan. While Japan has diagnostic criteria for both childhood and adult obesity and metabolic syndrome, the appropriateness of the proposed criteria has been questioned. The present study aimed to determine screning ability of anthropomenric indices relative to estimated percentage body fat (%BF) and tp propose gender-and maturation-specific cut-off points using 1,393 Japanese (552 malesand 841 females; 7.6 - 66.3 years old). Between 20%-50% of individuals with high fat deposits were misclassified using body mass index (BMI), abdominal circumference (AC), abdominal to height ratio (AHtR), and sum of two skinfolds (sigma 2SF). Using the WHO public action point of 23kg/m2, AC of 80 cm, AHtR of 0.5 for all groups and sigma 2SF of 25 mm for males and 40 mm for females were estimated to be potentially useful cutoff-points. The results may indicate a need for further research for appropriate screening cut-off points for Japanese.