Evidence map›Paper›PMID 19720664›Full record

ArticlePediatrics2009

The validity of BMI as an indicator of body fatness and risk among children.

David S Freedman, Bettylou Sherry

2 registry-linked trialsAbstract readValidation Study
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Pediatrics, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It reports registered trial NCT01410604. Cited by 202 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
202citing papers in PubMed, 8 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT01410604 phase4completed

Inflammatory Mediators in Obese Adolescents With Insulin Resistance Following Metformin Treatment: Controlled Randomized Clinical Trial

Ran2007Enrolled31Registered outcomes8Posted comparisons0ConditionsObesityArmsMetformin, Placebo
PMID 18492523PMID 18597869PMID 16595599PMID 11602624PMID 12727947PMID 12364452PMID 12043359PMID 11735093PMID 11681807PMID 11344187PMID 11295710PMID 11172066other papers from this trial
Open the trial in the graph
NCT05124847 nacompletednot on this mapstarted 2021, after this paper: background citation

Time Restricted Eating as a Treatment for Pediatric Obesity

TypeinterventionalSponsorFundación Pública Andaluza para la Investigación de Málaga en Biomedicina y SaludRan2021 to 2023Enrolled30ConditionsInfant Obesity, Hepatic Steatosis, Metabolic Syndrome, Insulin ResistanceArmsStandard Care, Time restricted eating
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

202 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Association between 24-hour movement behaviors and adiposity in children and adolescents: A compositional data meta-analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025
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142 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

David S FreedmanDivision of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy, Mailstop K-26, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717, USA. dfreedman@cdc.gov
Bettylou Sherry

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purpose of reviewAlthough the prevalence of childhood obesity, as assessed by BMI (kg/m(2)), has tripled over the last 3 decades, this index is a measure of excess weight rather than excess body fatness. In this review we focus on the relation of BMI to body fatness and health risks, particularly on the ability of BMI for age >or=95th Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] percentile to identify children who have excess body fatness. We also examine whether these associations differ according to race/ethnicity and whether skinfold and circumference measurements provide additional information on body fatness or health risks.

resultsThe accuracy of BMI varies according to the degree of body fatness. Among relatively fat children, BMI is a good indicator of excess adiposity, but differences in the BMIs of relatively thin children can be largely due to fat-free mass. Although the accuracy of BMI in identifying children with excess body fatness depends on the chosen cut points, we have found that a high BMI-for-age has a moderately high (70%-80%) sensitivity and positive predictive value, along with a high specificity (95%). Children with a high BMI are much more likely to have adverse risk factor levels and to become obese adults than are thinner children. Skinfold thicknesses and the waist circumference may be useful in identifying children with moderately elevated levels of BMI (85th to 94 th percentiles) who truly have excess body fatness or adverse risk factor levels.

conclusionA BMI for age at >or=95th percentile of the CDC reference population is a moderately sensitive and a specific indicator of excess adiposity among children.

Indexed as

Body Fat DistributionBody Mass IndexAnthropometryArea Under CurveChildHumansRisk AssessmentSensitivity and SpecificitySkinfold Thickness

Identifiers

PMID19720664

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.