Objective: To study the distribution of waist circumference (WC) in a representative group of Chinese children for establishing the Chinese WC cut-off points.
Methods: Cross-sectional data obtained from 15 mainland provinces and Hong Kong were collected. There were 178 865 children and adolescents, aged 7 - 18 years-old in total. All subjects were divided into five regional groups-costal city, non-coastal city, northern rural, southern rural, and Hong Kong, for analyzing the distribution of WC.
Results: Large variations in WC distribution were found among Netherlands demonstrated the necessity of setting up China's own WC cutoffs. Sex and age-specific percentiles were obtained and smoothed by using the LMS method.
Conclusion: Data obtained from this study could be used to develop the national WC cutoff points for Chinese children and adolescents.