AIM:

To estimate the prevalence of the classifications of overweight and obesity in adolescents according to three criteria for nutritional status classification (Conde & Monteiro, International Obesity Task Force - IOTF and Word Health Organization - WHO), and to investigate whether sociodemographic factors associated with overweight and obesity differ among the three criteria.

METHOD:

cross-sectional study with 1,132 adolescents (14-19 years old) living in Brazil. Body Mass Index (BMI) was classified according to three criteria for nutritional status. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic information. Sexual maturation was measured by self-reported Tanner stage ratings. Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the Odds Ratio and 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS:

The prevalence of the classification "overweight" (from here on referred to simply as "overweight") was 23.1% for WHO; 23.7% for Conde Monteiro criteria: and 19.2% for IOTF. Both boys and girls aged 17-19 were more likely to be overweight using the WHO and Conde & Monteiro criteria than those using the IOTF criteria. Girls in the post-pubertal maturational stage were less likely of being overweight or obese using the three criteria.

CONCLUSION:

The three criteria result in different prevalence measures, with WHO and Conde and Monteiro criteria being more approximate in terms of prevalence and correlated factors when compared to IOTF criteria.