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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2017 | Volume
: 8
| Issue : 1 | Page : 60 |
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The study of obesity among children aged 5–18 years in Jaipur, Rajasthan
Mahmood Dhahir Al-Mendalawi
Department of Paediatrics, Al-Kindy College of Medicine, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq
| Date of Web Publication | 2-Feb-2017 |
Correspondence Address:
Mahmood Dhahir Al-Mendalawi
P. O. Box 55302, Baghdad Post office, Baghdad
Iraq
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0975-9727.199372
How to cite this article:
Al-Mendalawi MD. The study of obesity among children aged 5–18 years in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Muller J Med Sci Res 2017;8:60 |
How to cite this URL:
Al-Mendalawi MD. The study of obesity among children aged 5–18 years in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Muller J Med Sci Res [serial online] 2017 [cited 2023 Mar 21];8:60. Available from: https://www.mjmsr.net/text.asp?2017/8/1/60/199372 |
Dear Editor,
I read with interest the study by Jain et al. on obesity among children aged 5–18 years in Jaipur, Rajasthan.[1] The authors mentioned that 12.5% of the children were overweight having a percentage between 85 and 95, while only 5.6% of the children were obese having a percentage ≥ 95.[1] In my opinion, these results ought to be cautiously taken. This is based on the presence of the following two study limitations.
First, the authors addressed in the methodology that the body mass index (BMI) was derived by dividing the patient's mass by the square of his or her height. The BMI cutoff points were standardized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth chart in identifying the age- and gender-specific cutoff points for the BMI with the age ranging from 5 to 18 years for the labeling of overweight and obesity in the studied population.[1] It is noteworthy that there are many growth charts to be used in the pediatric clinical setting to evaluate various growth parameters, namely, the World Health Organization, CDC growth charts, and national growth charts. The comparison of the use of various growth charts to the use of country-specific growth charts suggested that the latter might describe the growth of children more faithfully.[2] To my knowledge, the revised Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) growth charts for height, weight, and BMI for the assessment of growth of 5-18-year-old Indian children have been recently launched replacing the previous 2007 IAP growth charts.[3] I wonder why the authors did not consider the Indian-specific BMI reference percentiles in the methodology rather than CDC BMI percentiles. I presume that employing these national BMI standards might alter the results of the study.
Second, it is worth to mention that Indian population represent an astonishing amalgamation of different ethnicities. The authors did not mentioned the ethnic backgrounds of the studied cohort in the methodology. This point is important to be considered as ethnic disparities have been noticed to contribute importantly to the pediatric overweight/obesity prevalence.[4],[5]
Finally, in spite of the above-mentioned two limitations, the reported prevalence of overweight/obesity in the studied cohort is worrisome. Strict actions to curtail further uprising in overweight/obesity prevalence are, therefore, warranted.
Financial Support and Sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of Interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Jain A, Jain A, Pankaj JP, Sharma BN, Paliwal A. The study of obesity among children aged 5-18 years in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Muller J Med Sci Res 2016;7:125-30.   |
| 2. | Ziegler EE, Nelson SE. The WHO growth standards: Strengths and limitations. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 2012;15:298-302. |
| 3. | Indian Academy of Pediatrics Growth Charts Committee, Khadilkar V, Yadav S, Agrawal KK, Tamboli S, Banerjee M, et al. Revised IAP growth charts for height, weight and body mass index for 5- to 18-year-old Indian children. Indian Pediatr 2015;52:47-55. |
| 4. | Toselli S, Zaccagni L, Celenza F, Albertini A, Gualdi-Russo E. Risk factors of overweight and obesity among preschool children with different ethnic background. Endocrine 2015;49:717-25. |
| 5. | Zilanawala A, Davis-Kean P, Nazroo J, Sacker A, Simonton S, Kelly Y. Race/ethnic disparities in early childhood BMI, obesity and overweight in the United Kingdom and United States. Int J Obes (Lond) 2015;39:520-9. |
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