Age-dependent percentile for waist circumference for Japanese children based on the 1992–1994 cross-sectional national survey data

The aim of this study was to set forth an age-dependent percentile for waist circumference of Japanese children and to compare the reference with data from other countries. We utilized the 1992–1994 cross-sectional national survey data on waist circumference as measured at two benchmark sites in 10,614 Japanese children (5,851 boys, 4,763 girls) aged 6.0–18.0 years for constructing the reference by the LMS method. Japanese children had smaller waist circumference percentile values as compared to those of Dutch and US children, but had comparable or larger percentile values as compared to those of UK children. We suspect that the observed ethnic differences may be in part due to the differences in benchmark in waist circumference measurements in each country. We present for the first time an age-dependent percentile for waist circumference for Japanese children. It is mandatory to standardize a benchmark site for waist circumference for more meaningful international comparison.