The development of waist circumference percentiles in Singaporean adolescents aged 13.00-16.99 years

58 p.Waist Circumference (WC) is a simple reproducible measure for intra-abdominal fat and has stronger associations with risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases than does Body Mass Index (BMI). The purpose of this study was (i) To develop the age- and gender-specific WC reference curves for Singaporean youths aged 13.00–16.99 years, (ii) to compare WC and BMI as a tool for obesity screening in Singaporean youths, and (iii) to compare the WC reference curves for Singaporean youths to those of other populations. 811 Singaporean adolescents (438 boys and 373 girls) aged 13.00–16.99 years took part in the study. WC was measured at 2 cm above the umbilicus. Height and weight data were retrieved from school databases to calculate BMI. Smoothed percentile curves were developed using LMSchartmaker Pro Version 2.54. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 22. WC and BMI increased with age in all adolescents. Age-specific WC percentile values were higher in boys than in girls. Furthermore, a strong positive correlation between WC and BMI was observed in both genders. The Spearman’s correlation coefficients were statistically significant at r = 0.845, p < 0.001 (two-tailed), for boys, and r = 0.868, p < 0.001 (two-tailed), for girls. At the 50th and 90th percentile for WC, Singaporean adolescents exhibited distinctive characteristics from youths of other countries. In conclusion, this study reports the first age- and gender-specific WC reference curves for Singaporean adolescents. WC may be a useful addition to BMI in the evaluation of obesity and its related ill-health in the young.Bachelor of Science (Sport Science and Management