Moderate agreement between body mass index and measures of waist circumference in the identification of overweight among 5-year-old children; the ‘Be active, eat right’ study

Background Body mass index (BMI) is a common indirect method to assess weight status among children. There is evidence that BMI data alone can underestimate overweight-related health risk and that waist circumference (WC) should also be measured. In this study we investigated the agreement between BMI and WC and BMI and the waist-height ratio (WHtR) when used to identify overweight among children.