Children with normal BMI are still obese

(Some children with normal body mass index (BMI) may actually be obese, because they have increased body fat that is not detected by evaluation. through body mass index, a new study published.

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As a result, some parents have a 'feeling of peace of mind' that their children are not obese, and that they do not need to pay attention to the weight of their children, researchers, and doctors. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez said. Lopez-Jimenez is the director of the Department of Heart Disease Prevention at Mayo Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota.

Researchers have examined whether body mass index BMI - a ratio between body weight and body height - can determine how accurate a child is obese. BMI is a very common method in diagnosing obesity, but it has shortcomings: it cannot distinguish between the mass of meat and the amount of body fat. Children who are often considered obese if their BMI falls into the 95th percentile at their age.

This new study compared BMI assessments with other body fat-based diagnosis methods, including skin thickness assessments and a DXA radiography technique (Dual- energy X - ray absorptiometry).

The results showed that children with high BMI were mostly considered obese based on their body fat content. However, among those who are not diagnosed with obesity according to BMI, 25% of them are obese based on their body fat content.

In other words, a diagnosis of obesity may be missing in these children.

'BMI does not identify more than ¼ of children with excess body fat percentage,' the researchers wrote in an article published online June 24 in the Journal of Child Obesity. I (Pediatric Obesity).

These findings are worrying, because a failure to recognize obesity in childhood can turn into ' missed opportunities to establish appropriate lifestyle interventions, to minimize risk. Future health risks , 'the researchers said.

Earlier, the same group of researchers identified what they named: "obesity with normal body weight" in adults, which they used for people with BMI. usually but has a high body fat content. Like obesity, obesity in normal weight can increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and other adult diseases.

Researchers also said that health risks for obese children should be considered but not diagnosed because of their normal BMI. And it's too early to recommend that doctors regularly assess the body's fat content to determine if they are obese. But Lopez-Jimenez suggested, at least to measure the circumference of the baby's waist to see if it was normal at its age.