Background: The reference cut-offs for overweight and obesity have evolved from the use of International obesity task force (IOTF) to extended IOTF and revised Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) growth charts.
Methods: Secondary analysis of anthropometric data of school-going children from Delhi in the year 2008, 2013 and 2015 was performed. The proportions of children with overweight, obesity, and undernutrition were checked for agreement using different diagnostic cutoffs, and compared at three-time points.
Results: Among 8417 adolescents, weighted Kappa statistics showed good agreement between extended IOTF and IAP cutoffs (k=0.933; 95% CI 0.93-0.94), between eIOTF and IOTF (k=0.624; 95% CI 0.619 - 0.629) and between IAP and IOTF (k=0.654; 95% CI 0.645-0.662). A higher proportion of adolescents were diagnosed with obesity with extended IOTF and IAP charts than IOTF charts (P<0.001 for both genders). The mean (SD) BMI showed a rising trend for adolescents overall from 19.61 (3.89) kg/m2 in 2008, 20.44 (4.37) kg/m2 in 2013 and 20.88 (4.60) kg/m2 in 2015 (P<0.001). 158 adolescent (97 girls) were undernourished using combined IAP and extended IOTF criteria.
Conclusion: Both extended IOTF and IAP charts showed good agreement for diagnosing overweight and obesity in adolescents. A secular trend in malnutrition was observed in adolescent girls.