Single definition of overweight and obesity should be used

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7319.999

BMJ 2001;323:999 ( 27 October )

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Single definition of overweight and obesity should be used

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ In May 2000 the BMJ published details of a new reference standard for childhood obesity developed by the InternationalObesity Task Force.¹ The task force's standards take a logicaland pragmatic approach to the problem of defining the cut-offpoints of body mass index indicating overweight and obesity inchildren.

In adults these cut-off points are based on the morbidity and mortality associated with excess weight. In the absence of suchdata in children the task force defined the cut-off points foryoung people by back-extrapolating from the centile of body massindex corresponding to values of >25 kg/m² (overweight) and 30 kg/m² (obese) at age 18. Subsequent papers in the BMJ and elsewhere,however, have not all applied this definition, instead choosingmore liberal cut-off points, usually the 85th and 95th centilesof national standards for overweight and obesity respectively.This practice has severalflaws.

Firstly, different values are obtained . . . [Full text of this article]

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Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey: Tim J Cole, Mary C Bellizzi, Katherine M Flegal, and William H Dietz
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