• Elma Izze da Silva Magalhães, Luciana Ferreira da Rocha Sant'Ana, Silvia Eloiza Priore, and Sylvia do Carmo Castro Franceschini.
• Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, MG, Brasil. Electronic address: elma_izze@hotmail.com.
• Rev Paul Pediatr. 2014 Sep 1; 32 (3): 273-81.

ObjectiveTo analyze studies that assessed the anthropometric parameters waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHR) and neck circumference (NC) as indicators of central obesity in children.Data SourcesWe searched PubMed and SciELO databases using the combined descriptors: "Waist circumference", "Waist-to-height ratio", "Neck circumference", "Children" and "Abdominal fat" in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Inclusion criteria were original articles with information about the WC, WHR and NC in the assessment of central obesity in children. We excluded review articles, short communications, letters and editorials.Data Synthesis1,525 abstracts were obtained in the search, and 68 articles were selected for analysis. Of these, 49 articles were included in the review. The WC was the parameter more used in studies, followed by the WHR. Regarding NC, there are few studies in children. The predictive ability of WC and WHR to indicate central adiposity in children was controversial. The cutoff points suggested for the parameters varied among studies, and some differences may be related to ethnicity and lack of standardization of anatomical site used for measurement.ConclusionsMore studies are needed to evaluate these parameters for determination of central obesity children. Scientific literature about NC is especially scarce, mainly in the pediatric population. There is a need to standardize site measures and establish comparable cutoff points between different populations.Copyright © 2014 Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

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