Objective: to assess the diagnostic criteria and propose cutoff points for waist circumference (WC), arm circumference (AC), leg circumference (LC) and waist/height ratio (WHR) for overweight prediction in adolescents.
Methods: a census with all individuals aged 13-19 years old (N=1,075) from the municipality of Caracol-PI, Brazil was carried out; overweight was defined as body mass index (BMI) above one z-score, according to the criterion of the World Health Organization.
Results: the cutoff points (in centimeters) of WC, AC, LC and WHR for overweight prediction were, respectively, 76.4, 26.4, 34.0 and 0.460 in males, and 74.6, 27.0, 34.5 and 0.475 in females; the area under the ROC curve was above 0.70 (males) and 0.90 (females).
Conclusion: the anthropometric indicators assessed reached satisfactory diagnostic values for overweight prediction in adolescents from the Brazilian semi-arid region.