title: Waist circumference percentiles in children and adolescents between 6 and 14 years from Santiago, Chile.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the percentile distribution of waist circumference (WC) by sex and age in a representative sample of children and adolescents of lower-middle and low socioeconomic status in Santiago, Chile.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-section of 3022 primary-school students between the ages of 6 and 14 from middle-low and low-class schools of Santiago. Ten schools from the Primary Education Society (SIP) in Santiago, Chile, were selected at random. WC was measured under standardized procedures as instructed by the WHO (midpoint between lower costal margin and iliac crest). The population was categorized between percentiles 10 and 90 and divided by sex and age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  WC tends to increase with age in both males and females, but no significant differences were found in the percentiles by age for boys and girls at any age range (p>0.05). In our sample, comparing Chilean children with other populations (British, Australian, European-American, African-American, Mexican - American and Colombian), Chilean children have shown a significantly greater WC (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We present new WC reference values for Chilean children according to sex and age from a representative sample of Chilean population. These can be considered as a new anthropometric assessment tool for estimating cardiometabolic risk in Chilean children.
authors.affiliation: Endocrinology Unit, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. caroavalosf@gmail.com
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Avalos
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Díaz
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bancalari
authors.forename: Juanita
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zamorano
authors.forename: Flavia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Harbin
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cerda
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cavada
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arteaga
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valenzuela
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toro
authors.forename: Hernán
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: García
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002677:Chile / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012494:Sampling Studies; D055105:Waist Circumference