Body mass index in Bengali adolescents
Banerjee, I.; Ghia, N.; Bandopadhyay, S.; Sayed, H.N.; Mukherjee, D.
Indian Pediatrics 42(3): 262-267
2005
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-6061 PMID: 15817976 Document Number: 241960
We describe a mixed longitudinal analysis of body mass index (BMI) in a group of Bengali adolescents (1200 children, age 11-17 years) from a middle income family background and compare this against existing national and international data. Healthy school children, comprising of 416 boys and 343 girls consented to annual repeat measurements of weight, height and pubertal staging between the years 1998 and 2001. The LMS method was used to construct smoothed BMI mean and standard deviation (SD) curves. Bengali adolescents have lower BMI than affluent Indian children and are -1 to -2 SD below US children. BMI increases in adolescence (boys: r=0.49, p<0.001, girls: r=0.54, P<0.001) with age but SMR does not have an independent effect on BMI.