Extended international (IOTF) body mass index cut‐offs for thinness, overweight and obesity

The international (International Obesity Task Force; IOTF) body mass index (BMI) cut‐offs are widely used to assess the prevalence of child overweight, obesity and thinness. Based on data from six countries fitted by the LMS method, they link BMI values at 18 years (16, 17, 18.5, 25 and 30 kg m−2) to child centiles, which are averaged across the countries. Unlike other BMI references, e.g. the World Health Organization (WHO) standard, these cut‐offs cannot be expressed as centiles (e.g. 85th).