Anthropometric characteristics of Mohawk children aged 6 to 11 years: A population perspective

Objective Recent studies have concluded that Native North American children have higher proportions of overweight and obesity than children from the g eneral North American population. This study presents anthropometric data o n a representative sample of children from the Mohawk Nation that can be us ed for comparison with other Native American populations. Design This is a cross-sectional study comparing distributions of anthropom etric characteristics of Mohawk children to the corresponding age and gende r data from the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NH ANES II). Weight, height, triceps and subscapular skinfold thickness, and w aist and hip circumferences were measured in 527 children. Subjects/setting All children in grades 1 to 6 (aged 6 to 11 years) in the 3 elementary schools of 2 Mohawk communities in Canada, for whom parental c onsent was obtained, were enrolled in the present study. There were no excl usion criteria. With a participation rate of 83%, the 527 children enrolled in this study represent an unbiased sample of the population from 2 Mohawk territories. Results Compared with children studied in NHANES II, Mohawk children were s imilar in height and triceps skinfolds but were generally heavier, had thic ker subscapular skinfolds, and had greater waist and hip circumferences. Th ese differences were greater in older children. Mohawk children who had ext reme-high weight values compared with their population means were heavier t han their NHANES II counterparts. Applications/conclusions Results indicated that, on average, Mohawk childre n seem to be slightly heavier than children in NHANES II. Except for those with extreme overweight values, Mohawk children show less variation of weig ht and body mass index than children in NHANES II. Finally, overweight Moha wk children seem to be more likely to carry their excess body fat truncally , compared with overweight children from NHANES II. Health practitioners wo rking with Native American populations should be careful when assessing chi ldhood obesity. Simple comparisons of weight or body mass index with NHANES standards may lead to inappropriate risk assessments.