Background: Obesity, particularly in the upper part of body, is a major health problem. Because body mass index (BMI) does not adequately describe regional adiposity, other indices of body fatness are being explored.
Objectives: To determine if neck circumference is a valid measure of adiposity (fat distribution) among group of Egyptian children.
Subjects and methods: This is a cross sectional study, included 50 obese subjects, aged 7 - 12 years recruited from Endocrine, obesity and Metabolism Pediatric Unit at Children Hospital, Cairo University and 50 healthy children, age and sex matched. All children were subjected to blood pressure assessment (systolic SBP and diastolic DBP), and anthropometric assessment (body weight, height, neck circumference (NC), waist (WC) and hip (HC) circumferences, and skin fold thicknesses at three sites: biceps, triceps and sub scapular. BMI [weight (kg)/height (m2)] was calculated.
Results: In healthy females, significant associations were detected between NC and SBP, DBP and all anthropometric measurements. However, in healthy males NC was not significantly associated with BMI, SBP and DBP. In the obese group; both sexes; insignificant association was found between NC and SBP, DBP, BMI and skinfold thickness.
Conclusion: NC is related to fat distribution among normal healthy female children. However, this relation disappears with increasing adiposity. The results do not support the use of NC as a useful screening tool for childhood obesity.
Keywords: blood pressure; body mass index; children; fat distribution; neck circumference.