Accuracy of neck circumference in the diagnosis of overweight in children

TL;DR

This study evaluates how well neck circumference measurements can diagnose overweight in 10-year-old children.

Contribution

The study provides new evidence on the diagnostic accuracy of neck circumference for identifying overweight in children.

Findings

Neck circumference had an overall accuracy of 88.9% for diagnosing overweight in children.

A 30 cm neck circumference showed high specificity (95.4%) and positive predictive value (76.6%).

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate the accuracy of measuring neck circumference as a diagnostic method for overweight in 10-year-old children.

A cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study was performed in 2019. The population was composed of 942 school children from the municipality of Palhoça, SC, Brazil. For each measurement of the neck circumference, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, likelihood ratio for a positive test, and accuracy were estimated using the receiver operator characteristic curve, with body mass index as a reference.

The estimated overall accuracy was 88.9%. For males, the accuracy was 90.1%, and for females, 88.5%. A 30.0 cm neck circumference had a sensitivity of 22.8%, a specificity of 95.4%, a positive predictive value of 76.6%, a negative predictive value of 65.3%, a likelihood ratio for a positive test of 5.0, and an accuracy of 66.7% for all students.

Neck circumference showed a global accuracy of 88.9% as a method for diagnosing overweight in 10-year-old children. Predictive values showed high values, mainly starting with a neck circumference of 30 cm.

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