For young kids in the Pacific islands, measuring their waist size can help spot a skin condition called acanthosis nigricans. For boys 2-5 years old, a waist size of about 58 cm (90th percentile) correctly identifies about half of the kids with the skin condition and correctly rules it out for 91% of kids without it.

Using different waist size cutoffs based on age and gender works better for spotting the skin condition acanthosis nigricans than using one cutoff for all kids in the Pacific islands.

For girls 2-5 years old in the Pacific islands, a smaller waist size (53.3 cm at 62nd percentile) is used to predict the skin condition acanthosis nigricans compared to boys of the same age (58.3 cm at 90th percentile).

For girls 6-8 years old in the Pacific islands, using a waist size of 63.6 cm (80th percentile) correctly identifies about 55% of kids with the skin condition acanthosis nigricans and correctly rules it out for 83% of kids without it.

For boys aged 6-8 in the Pacific islands, the waist size that best predicts the skin condition acanthosis nigricans is smaller (63.6 cm) than the standard cutoff (71.6 cm) used by the International Diabetes Federation.

For some age and gender groups in the Pacific islands, the waist size cutoff for the skin condition acanthosis nigricans is lower than the standard cutoff recommended by the International Diabetes Federation.