Body mass index, or BMI, is an indirect measurement of body fatness. It uses your weight in relation to your height to indicate whether you’re underweight, healthy weight, overweight or obese -- although it's not perfect and can be misleading in some situations, such as more than normal muscle mass. This is the standard form of determining weight status, but a new method of screening for obesity is growing in popularity. Instead of using height compared to weight, neck size is measured to help identify overweight and obesity. However, this modality is only used in children between ages 6 and 18.
BMI for Age
BMI for age is the most common method of determining weight status in children. It gives medical professionals an idea of your child’s body fatness based on his weight and height in relation to children of the same age and gender, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Once the numeric value is calculated, it’s plotted on a growth chart, which then ranks your child’s percentile. If your child falls within the 85th to 94th percentile for his age and gender, he’s considered overweight for his height and age. Percentiles over the 94th are given the status of obese.
Weight Status
BMI for age is only a screening tool. To determine whether body weight is a health problem, other tests and assessments are necessary. Your child’s doctor often looks at family history, level of physical activity, diet, growth pattern, body frame and other screening tools, such as skinfold thickness, to help establish a strategy for weight loss or weight management. No healthy weight range exists for children and teens, largely due to the frequent changes in height, weight and body fat as a boy or girl ages.
Neck Size
With all of the variations that can affect BMI in children and teens, including muscle mass and bone density, researchers are looking for new and better ways to screen for overweight or obesity in youths. One of the more recent developments is neck size. To determine weight status, your doctor only needs to measure your child’s neck size and then compare this number with measurements of overweight and obesity classifications for your child’s age and gender.
Features
Besides establishing weight status, neck size can also help predict weight-related health issues in children, says MayoClinic.com. Larger neck sizes as a result of excess body fat increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease in youths. It can also lead to sleep apnea.
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