Prevalence of acanthosis nigricans in relation to anthropometric measures: Community-based cross-sectional study in Korean pre-adolescent school children

Background: This cross-sectional study was performed to assess the prevalence of acanthosis nigricans (AN) across various anthropometric measures and to identify the cut-offs for anthropometric indices of adiposity for development of AN in Asian preadolescent school children. Methods: Body mass index (BMI), percentage weight for height (PWH), percentage body fat (PBF), and AN of the neck were evaluated in children in the fifth grade of all elementary schools in one metropolitan, Korean city (2117 boys and 1916 girls, mean age 10.9 +/- 0.6 years, mean BMI 18.6 +/- 3.3 kg/m(2)). Results: The prevalence of AN was 8.4% in boys and 5.1% in girls, and was proportional to the BMI, PWH, and PBF. The prevalence of AN rose steeply in the 80th and 90th percentiles of the BMI, PWH, and PBF in boys and girls, respectively. According to receiver operating characteristic analysis, AN was observed in boys with BMI > 22.2 kg/m(2), and in girls with BMI > 21.2 kg/m(2), which are below the current criteria for childhood obesity (local BMI 95th percentile and International Obesity Task Force BMI 30 kg/m(2)). Conclusions: AN has a good correlation with level of adiposity, and was already present in overweight children that were not considered obese by definition.