Distribution of BMI in children: Prevalence of wasting and fattening conditions

This paper reports a study of body-mass index (weight/height(2)) frequency distribution in 2858 schoolchildren (1440 males, 1418 females), 6-14 years old: (a) not taking into account the degree of skewness (z-score) and (b) taking it into account (LMS method by Cole). The z-score detected no evident problems of severe wasting conditions, but did detect the presence of severe fattening conditions. The LMS method gave a more balanced distribution. Methods that do not take into account the degree of skewness should be avoided in estimates concerning prevalence of wasting and stunting conditions.