definition of overweight and obese (fwd)

[Laura Larsson]

Friends:

You might find the document listed in the next message of interest. It
looks well written, is definitely attractive and my be useful as a model
for any documents you might be authoring. (I love examples of nice-looking
documents).

You will need to have the Adobe viewer installed in your computer as the
document is in PDF format.

Regards,

Laura Larsson
NLM Informatics Fellow, OHSU
and
Clinical Faculty
Health Services, University of Washington
larsson at u.washington.edu
listowner: PHNUTR-L, PHNURSES, PNWHEALTH, PHSW, HSR-L +
http://courses.washington.edu/hs590a/hs590a.html

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and
write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. "  Alvin Toffler

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 19:02:49 -0000
From: "Carnon, Andrew" <ACarnon at DGHB.SCOT.NHS.UK>
To: PUBLIC-HEALTH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: definition of overweight and obese

A problem with defining adult overweight/obesity in terms of percentiles
would be that population weight levels can change even over relatively short
periods of time.

I'm not sure if the prevalence of obesity is increasing in the US, but in
Scotland the proportions who are obese (as defined by a body mass index
greater than 30) increased from 16% in 1995 to 19% in 1998 for males, and
from 17% in 1995 to 21% in 1998 for females.  These increases are
potentially a serious public health problem, and would be hidden if using
population percentiles to define obesity.

BMI can be calculated for children in the same way as for adults, but is not
so easy to interpret.  The normal range varies with age, gender and ethnic
group, and you can use (percentile-based) BMI charts to assess overweight.
See for example,
www.sign.ac.uk/pdf/sign8.pdf <http://www.sign.ac.uk/pdf/sign8.pdf>
(currently missing the actual charts, but hopefully just a short-term
glitch)

Andrew Carnon
Consultant in Public Health
Dumfries, Scotland



        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Gene Shackman [SMTP:gxs03 at HEALTH.STATE.NY.US]
        Sent:   Wednesday, March 21, 2001 5:46 PM
        To:     PUBLIC-HEALTH at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
        Subject:        definition of overweight and obese

        Hi,

        Is there a commonly accepted definition of overweight and obese, in
terms of
        percentiles, eg, greater than 85th percentile for overweight and
greater than
        95th percentile for obese?

        A web search showed a couple of definitions using BMI, but anything
on
        percentile?  In particular, how does CDC define overweight and
obese, especially
        with regard to children?

        Thanks


        Gene Shackman, Ph.D.
        NYS DOH - Nutrition
        150 Broadway, FL6 West, Albany NY 12204
        518-402-7304           gxs03 at health.state.ny.us
        ------
        Uncle of cutest niece and nephew
        and now daddy of brilliant and cute toddler