title: Neck Circumference to Assess Obesity in Preschool Children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Limited information is available about the use of neck circumference (NC) to assess obesity in preschool children. This study aims to provide NC percentiles and determine the cut-off levels of NC as a measure to assess obesity in preschool children.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data were obtained from the Anthropometry of Turkish Children aged 0-6 years (ATCA-06) study database. A total of 21 family health centers were chosen and children aged 2-6 years old from all socioeconomic levels were randomly selected from the lists of district midwives; 1766 children (874 male and 892 female; 88.3% of sample size) were included in the study. The smoothed centile curves of NC were constructed by the LMS method. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to calculate cut-off points for NC using body mass index ≥95thpercentile.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean NC was greater in males than females. Cut-off values for obesity were found to be statistically significant in both genders other than 3 years old boys. The NC percentiles of Turkish preschool children were slightly greater than those of other European preschool children in both genders. This difference disappeared around the adiposity rebound period. The 97th percentile values for Turkish preschool children continue to be greater in both genders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NC may be useful to define obesity in preschool children. Since ethnic and various other factors may have a role in incidence of obesity, local reference data are important in assessment of obesity.
authors.affiliation: Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Social Pediatrics Unit, Kayseri, Turkey E-mail: medakondolot@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Meda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kondolot
authors.forename: Duygu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Horoz
authors.forename: Serpil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poyrazoğlu
authors.forename: Arda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borlu
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Öztürk
authors.forename: Selim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kurtoğlu
authors.forename: Mümtaz M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mazıcıoğlu
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods*; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009333:Neck / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D012372:ROC Curve; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology