Obesity Is Undercounted in Children, Study Finds

Common measure may miss up to 25% of young people

By
SUMATHI REDDY

"Although BMI is a convenient way to classify children for obesity and being overweight, it must be followed by a set of questions about eating and physical activity to determine if a child faces health risks, said Sandra Hassink, medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight.

"The take home is that BMI is an initial first step to assess risk," said Dr. Hassink, president-elect of the AAP. "I think we need another measure that really may speak in a more refined way to the relative amount of adiposity versus muscle."

Other methods measure body fat more accurately than BMI, but these are generally more difficult to implement on a wide scale. Bioelectric-impedance devices, including specialized weighing scales and small gadgets, send a small amount of electrical current across the body to estimate body fatness."