Neck Circumference as a Screening Tool for Overweight and Obesity in Children

Introduction: Obesity is an emerging epidemic worldwide causing serious public health concern. The upper part of the body as Neck circumference (NC) can be used as a simple and time saving screening tool to evaluate it.

Materials and Methods: From January 2018 to June 2019, this school-based prospective observational study was conducted in schools of rural and urban areas near Jaipur taking 1000 children between age group of 6 to14 years. Children with conditions likely to interfere with neck circumference measurement were excluded. All anthropometric measurements were taken with standard techniques, and children were divided as normal, overweight or obese.

Results: Out of 1000 subjects, 364 males and 428 females were normal weight, 44 males and 68 females were overweight and 41 males and 19 females were found obese.

Intra group comparison of neck circumference in male & females showed significant correlation between normal, overweight & obese children. There was a good positive correlation between BMI and NC for all children.

Conclusion: Neck circumference can be used with great reliability to screen overweight and obesity in children.