Annals of Human Biology (Apr 2017)

Diagnostic performance of neck circumference to identify overweight and obesity as defined by body mass index in children and adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis

  • Chunming Ma,
  • Rui Wang,
  • Yue Liu,
  • Qiang Lu,
  • Xiaoli Liu,
  • Fuzai Yin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/03014460.2016.1224387
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 44, no. 3
pp. 223 – 229

Abstract

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Background: The neck circumference (NC) has been shown to be an accurate index for screening overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Aim: To perform a meta-analysis to assess the performance of NC for the assessment of overweight and obesity. Subjects and methods: Data sources were PubMed and EMBASE up to March 2016. Studies providing measures of diagnostic performance of NC and using body mass index as reference standard were included. Results: Six eligible studies that evaluated 11 214 children and adolescents aged 6–18 years were included in the meta-analysis. NC showed pooled sensitivity to detect high body mass index of 0.780 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.765–0.794), specificity of 0.746 (95% CI = 0.736–0.756) and a diagnostic odds ratio of 17.343 (95% CI = 8.743–34.405). Conclusions: The NC had moderate diagnostic accuracy for identifying overweight and obesity in children and adolescents.

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