Predictive performance of the waist-to-height ratio and the conicity index for diagnosing excess body fat in children.

WHtR was a good predictor of excess body fat in children of both sexes, with AUC values greater than 0.8.

• Study assessed 314 children aged five to nine years in a school-based design.
• Body composition was evaluated using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) as the gold standard.
• WHtR AUC values exceeded 0.8 in both boys and girls.
• Predictive performance was assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

The conicity index (CIndex) was classified as a poor predictor of excess body fat in children of both sexes.

• CIndex showed AUC values less than 0.7 in both sexes.
• AUC < 0.7 is the threshold used in this study to classify a predictor as poor.
• This finding applied to both boys and girls.

WHtR showed a significantly higher AUC than CIndex in predicting excess body fat.

• The difference in AUC between WHtR and CIndex was statistically significant (p<0.001).
• Statistical comparison was performed according to the Wald test.
• This significant difference held true for both sexes.

Optimal WHtR cut-off points for identifying excess body fat differed by sex, with >0.47 for boys and >0.45 for girls.

• Cut-off points were determined based on the higher accuracy of WHtR over CIndex.
• Children were classified as having excess or normal body fat according to sex using BIA reference criteria.
• These cut-off points were derived from a sample of children aged five to nine years.
• The cut-off of >0.47 applied to boys and >0.45 applied to girls.

The study population consisted of 314 school-aged children between five and nine years old.

• This was a school-based study design.
• Body composition was assessed via bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA).
• Children were classified by sex for body fat excess determination.
• Both WHtR and CIndex were calculated using their respective standard formulas.