Height, weight, BMI and weight-for-height of adults in southern Iran: how should obesity be defined?

Height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and weight for height are reported for 2210 parents of a random sample of school children in Shiraz, Iran. Weight for age and weight for height centiles have been computed by the Healy, Rasbash and Yang's nonparametric method and are presented graphically. The Iranian adults are taller and heavier than previously reported for people in the region but are smaller than European and US white adults. The distribution of BMI is broadly similar to that reported for UK adults but curves corresponding to BMI-constant, i.e. weight proportional to height, cut across the centiles of weight for height.