title: Trends in abdominal obesity among U.S. children and adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies showed that prevalence of abdominal obesity among US children and adolescents increased significantly between 1988-1994 and 2003-2004. However, little is known about recent time trends in abdominal obesity since 2003-2004.This study was to provide recent updated national estimates of childhood abdominal obesity and examine the trends in childhood abdominal obesity from 2003 to 2012.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted during 5 time periods (2003-2004, 2005-2006, 2007-2008, 2009-2010, and 2011-2012). A total of 16,601 US children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years were included. Abdominal obesity is defined as a waist circumference (WC) ≥ gender- and age-specific 90th percentile based on data from NHANES III (1988-1994) and a waist-to-height (WHtR) ≥0.5, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 2011-2012, 17.95% of children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years were abdominally obese defined by WC, and 32.93% of those aged 6 to 18 years were abdominally obese defined by WHtR. Mean WC and WHtR and prevalence of abdominal obesity kept stable between 2003-2004 and 2011-2012, independently of gender, age, and race/ethnicity. However, there was a significant decrease in abdominal obesity among children aged 2 to 5 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of abdominal obesity leveled off among US children and adolescents from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012.
authors: Departments of Epidemiology and Health Statistics.
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Xi
authors: Department of Epidemiology, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China; and jiemi@vip.163.com.
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Mi
authors: Nutrition and Food Hygiene.
authors: Min
authors: M
authors: Zhao
authors: Departments of Epidemiology and Health Statistics.
authors: Tao
authors: T
authors: Zhang
authors: Departments of Epidemiology and Health Statistics.
authors: Cunxian
authors: C
authors: Jia
authors: Social Medicine and Health Service Management, and.
authors: Jiajia
authors: J
authors: Li
authors: Toxicology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan, China;
authors: Tao
authors: T
authors: Zeng
authors: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
authors: Lyn M
authors: LM
authors: Steffen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: abdominal obesity; children; waist circumference; waist-to-height ratio