UKURAN LINGKAR PERGELANGAN TANGAN SEBAGAI INDIKATOR KEGEMUKAN PADA ANAK USIA SEKOLAH DASAR DI KOTA BOGOR JAWA BARAT

Abstract

WRIST CIRCUMFERENCE AS AN INDICATOR FOR OBESITY AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN BOGOR, WEST JAVA

Introduction:Obesity is now increasing problem among primary school children. Obesity during
childhood has a consequence of obesity in the teen age. Approximately, one third of children with
obesity will become obese in their older age.
Objective:To examine the reliability of wrist circumference as an indicator of obesity, particularly
for rapid assessment.
Method: The analysis used data from the study on ”The development of nutrition education
intervention for primary school children from midlle economic class families (2001)”. The sample in
this study is primary school children age 9-12 years from several favorite schools in the city of
Bogor West Java. The weight and height of 1990 children were collected during the study. In
addition data of wrist circumference was collected by a simple method non numerical measure but
a qualitatif. The method used was by connecting the thumb and the mid-finger of child’s right hand
on the wrist of child’s left hand. The method gives three condition: 1) Normal if the tips of thumb
and mid-finger touch each other and no space between wrist and the circle made by the thumb
and mid-finger, 2) Thin if the tips of thumb and mid-finger touch each other but there is space
between the wrist and the circle, and 3) overweight/obese if the tips thumb and mid-finger does
not touch each other. Data on weight and height were converted into z-score weight-for-height (ZWH) based on WHO-NCHS standard, 1982. Kappa coefficient was obtained to evaluate the
reliability of wrist circumference to Z-WH in identifying obesity among school children.
Result: 76% of overweight/obese children and 95% of non-overweight/obese children could be
identified by using wrist circumference. The Kappa coefficient for the reliability test is 0,6 and is a
sufficiently reliable.
Conclusion: Wrist circumference could be used as a simple tool for a rapid assesment or
sceening of obesity among school children.

Keywords:obesity, wrist circumference, weight-for-height Z-score, school children