Body mass index standards for children

BMJ 1999;319:122 ( 10 July )

Letters

Body mass index standards for children

1990 data will remain available

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

EDITOR $---$ In his editorial Prentice suggested using the Child Growth Foundation's paediatric body mass index charts for the UnitedKingdom to make both prospective and retrospective comparisonsof secular change pegged to the British 1990 data.¹ We canassure him that not only will the 1990 data always remain availablefor retrospective epidemiological research etc, but they willadditionally also feature the World Health Organisation InternationalObesity Task Force cut offs for children when they becomeavailable.

Michael Preece, Professor.
Tim Cole, Senior scientist.
Institute of Child Health, London WC1H 1EH

T Fry, Honorary chairman.
Child Growth Foundation, London W4 1PW