title: Comparison of NCHS, CDC, and WHO curves in children with cardiovascular risk.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study aimed to compare the prevalence of overweight and obesity according to three growth curves, created by the World Health Organization (WHO/2006), by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS/1977), and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC/2000) in children with cardiovascular risk factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from 118 children and adolescents, aged between 2 and 19 years, treated between the years 2001 to 2009 at the Pediatric Preventive Cardiology Outpatient Clinic of the Instituto de Cardiologia de Porto Alegre were evaluated. The variables analyzed were: weight, height, age, and gender. Variables were classified according to the following criteria: weight/age, height/age, and body mass index (BMI). The cutoff points used were obtained from the three growth curves: WHO/2006, NCHS/1977, and CDC/2000.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Regarding the criterion weight/age by the NCHS curve, 18% of the children were classified as having normal weight, and 82% had excess weight; by the CDC curve, 28% had normal and 72% had excess weight; by the WHO curve, 16.0% had normal weight and 84% had excess weight. According to the BMI, 0.8% of the population was underweight. According to the CDC and WHO curves, 7.6% and 6.8% had normal weight; 26.3% and 11.9% were overweight; and 65.3% and 80.5% were obese, respectively. Regarding the height/age criterion, there was no significant difference between the references and, on average, 98.3% of the population showed adequate height for age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The new WHO curves are more sensitive to identify obesity in a population at risk, which has important implications for preventive and therapeutic management.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Grasiela Junges de
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Sandra Mari
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Barbiero
authors.forename: Claudia Ciceri
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Cesa
authors.forename: Lucia Campos
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Pellanda
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009309:National Center for Health Statistics, U.S.; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States; D014944:World Health Organization; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Avaliação nutricional; Cardiovascular diseases; Curvas de crescimento; Doenças cardiovasculares; Growth curves; Nutritional assessment