Association of neck circumference with general and abdominal obesity in children and adolescents: the weight disorders survey of the CASPIAN-IV study.
This study aimed to evaluate the association of neck circumference (NC) with obesity to determine the sex-specific and age-specific optimal cut-off points of this measure in association with obesity in a national sample of the Iranian paediatric population.



This survey on weight disorders was conducted among a national sample of Iranian children and adolescents, aged 6-18 years. Using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operator characteristic curves, we evaluated the association of NC with general and abdominal obesity.



This national survey was conducted among 23 043 school students (50.8% boys) with a mean age (SD) of 12.55 (3.31) years. A significant association was documented between NC and other anthropometric measures in both sexes and in the whole population. In all age groups and genders, NC performed relatively well in classifying participants to overweight (AUC: 0.67 to 0.75, p<0.001), general obesity (AUC: 0.81 to 0.85, p<0.001) and abdominal obesity (AUC: 0.73 to 0.78, p<0.001).



NC can be considered as a simple time-saving clinical tool for obesity detection in large population-based studies in children and adolescents. It is significantly correlated with indices of adiposity and can reliably identify children with general and abdominal obesity in the Iranian paediatric population.
Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Roya
R
Kelishadi
Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Development of Research & Technology Center, Deputy of Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
Shirin
S
Djalalinia
Department of Pediatrics, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
Mohammad Esmaiel
ME
Motlagh
School of Humanities and Tourism Management, Bangkok University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Ali
A
Rahimi
Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Maryam
M
Bahreynian
Department of Exercise Physiology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Tahereh
T
Arefirad
Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Gelayol
G
Ardalan
Managerial Epidemiology Research Center, Department of Public Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Maragheh University of Medical Sciences, Maragheh, Iran.
Saeid
S
Safiri
Department of Nutrition, School of School of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Motahare
M
Hasani
Department of Medical Emergencies, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran.
Hamid
H
Asayesh
Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Morteza
M
Mansourian
Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran Chronic Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mostafa
M
Qorbani
D050154:Adiposity; D000293:Adolescent; D019540:Area Under Curve; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009333:Neck / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012372:ROC Curve; D055105:Waist Circumference
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