Body mass index and waist circumference of HIV-infected youth in a Miami cohort: comparison to local and national cohorts.
OBJECTIVE
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected youth are healthier because of effective antiretroviral therapies. We compared anthropometric measurements and prevalence of overweight and obesity between perinatally HIV-infected youth, a local HIV-uninfected comparison group, and 2007 to 2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data. In addition, we compared only African American HIV-infected youth with NHANES African Americans.


METHODS
Height, weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference (WC) of HIV-infected youth, aged 10 to 19 years, were compared among groups. BMI percentiles were categorized as underweight (<5%), normal (5% to <85%), overweight (85% to <95%), and obese (≥ 95%). Clinical correlates were modeled as predictors of BMI and WC.


RESULTS
A total of 134 HIV-infected (including 103 African Americans) (mean age 16.5 years), 75 HIV-uninfected (mean age 14.2 years), and 3216 NHANES (including 771 NHANES African Americans) (mean age 15.0 years) youth were included in the analysis. Height and weight z scores of HIV-infected youth were lower than those of HIV-uninfected and NHANES (P ≤ 0.056) youth. BMI, WC, and BMI category were not statistically different between groups. In the HIV-infected African American group, BMI z score was lower (0.49 vs 0.76, P = 0.04) compared with NHANES African Americans. There were no significant predictors of BMI or WC for the HIV-infected group.


CONCLUSIONS
HIV-infected children have similar BMIs and WCs as uninfected children both locally and nationally and show similar high rates of obesity and overweight. When compared with a more racially similar African American national sample, HIV-infected children have a lower BMI, suggesting that there may be persistent anthropometric differences in HIV.
*Division of Pediatric Clinical Research †Holtz Children's Hospital/Jackson Memorial Hospital ‡Infectious Disease, Department of Pediatrics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL.
Lori E
LE
Arbeitman
Robert C
RC
O'Brien
Gabriel
G
Somarriba
Sarah E
SE
Messiah
Daniela
D
Neri
Gwendolyn B
GB
Scott
Tracie L
TL
Miller
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida / Q000453:epidemiology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D050177:Overweight; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012016:Reference Values; D055105:Waist Circumference