ORIGINAL ARTICLE DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v%vi%i.31603 Cienc Cuid Saude 2017 Jul-Sep; 16(3) 1 Extracted from the Dissertation "The Behavior of Sleep and Obesity: A Study of Prevalence in Children from 07 to 12 years old from two schools of the Municipality of Canoas – RS” presented to the Master of Health and Human Development of Universidade La Salle (UNILASALLE) - Canoas - RS. *Physical Educator. Master in health and human development – UNILASSALE. **Doctor. Master's degree in health and human development – UNILASSALE. ***Medical Student. Scholar. Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry at the Hospital of Clinics of Porto Alegre/UFRGS. ****Physical Educator – UNILASALLE. *****Physical Educator - UNILASALLE. ****** Psychologist, Post doctorate in Medical Sciences, Teacher of the Master in Health and Human Development – UNISALLE ANALYSIS OF THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THREE ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASURES OF BODY WEIGHT IN SCHOOLCHILDREN Sabrine Basso Batalha* André Luís Bendl** Adam Fijtman*** Augusto Carvalho Bisnella**** Klaus Pilz***** Júlio César Walz****** ABSTRACT Some studies have questioned the BMI as the only criterion for defining overweight and obesity. Our objective was to determine the correlation between the three most used anthropometric measures for detection of excess of weight and obesity- body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and excess of body fat (%BF) through the subscapular and the triceps skinfolds thickness. This is a cross-sectional study comprising 460 volunteer students, ranging from 7 to 12 years old, from one public and one private school located in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The frequency of obese patients, according to the BMI percentile was 51.4%; WC was 25.21% and %BF was 36.30% without percentage differences between the two schools. The correlation between the three measures, according to Spearman test was r > 0.80. The strong correlation suggests that BMI itself is a good indicator for detecting obesity in schoolchildren. Keywords: Pediatric obesity. Waist Circumference. Body fat distribution. Body Mass Index. Correlation. INTRODUCTION Childhood obesity is a syndrome of physiologic, biochemical, anatomical, metabolic, psychological and social, characterized by an increase in adipose tissue, resulting in increased body weight. Seems to be strongly associated with the lifestyle and behavioral habits promoted by a culture of excessive consumption, eating fast food and industrialized, and the sedentary lifestyle. It is an organic disease, chronic that has no cure so far and whose treatment is extremely difficult and multidisciplinary focus (1) . In addition to the consequences of chronification obesity, overweight and obesity in children are associated with significant reduction in quality of life and greater risk of provocations, bullying and social isolation, as well as depression and decreased self-esteem (2-4) . The body mass index (BMI) is recommended by the World Health Organization (who) for evaluation and classification of nutritional status in children, adolescents and adults. However, your interpretation in terms of risk and prognosis in children and teenagers, has been treated with increasing caution. That due to changes that occur during growth, due to the biological maturation, when the proportions and body shapes, body fat, muscle mass may change quickly in periods and with different intensities. And today we know that the IMC is limited to the assessment of body fat and total (5) . Thus, other anthropometric measurements, also low cost and non-invasive, has been used for assessment of obesity and its risks. Among them, the Waist Circumference (CC) and the skinfold Thickness (6) . The circumference of the waist, such as BMI, is unable to determine body fat. Studies indicate that the percentage of fat is the best measure of cardiovascular risk (7) as well as predictor of insulinorresistência with consequent increase in risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease (8) . Measures of subcutaneous folds has been increasingly used for body composition assessment and the level of adiposity. This percentage is obtained by summation of two skin folds can estimate the percentage of body fat and your relationship with the health (9) . Thus, these three measures are used together, such as anthropometric