Association between waist-to-height ratio and masticatory function in predicting childhood obesity

ABSTRACT Purpose: to evaluate masticatory function in children according to the waist-to-height ratio. Methods: a cross-sectional study with 92 public school students aged 7 to 12 years of both sexes from a Brazilian city. They were divided into the following groups: waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) > 0.5 (N = 27) and WHtR < 0.5 (N = 65). Researchers considered their data on sex and age and evaluated their anthropometric parameters, masticatory performance, and electrical activity of the masseters. Pearson's chi-square test compared categorical variables, and Student's parametric t-test for independent samples compared numerical variables. In case of deviation from normal distribution, the Mann-Whitney test was used. Significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: children with WHtR > 0.5 had greater resting electrical activity of the right and left masseters and shorter meals than children with WHtR < 0.5. Conclusion: obese children have lower electrical activity of the masseters during chewing, contributing to shorter meals when compared to normal-weight children.