Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to determine the validity of simple epidemiological and clinical methods for the assessment of body fatness in preschool children.
METHODS: In 89 children (42 boys, 47 girls; mean age 4.1 SD 1.3y) measures of body fatness were made using total body water (TBW), dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), air displacement plethysmography (BODPOD) and skinfold thickness. Methods were compared by Bland-Altman analysis using TBW as the reference method, and by paired comparisons and rank order correlations.
FINDINGS: Bias for DXA was +1.8% body fat percentage units (limits of agreement +15.5% to -11.9%), bias for BODPOD was -3.5% (limits of agreement +18.9% to -5.9%) and bias for skinfolds using the Slaughter equations was -6.5% (limits of agreement +10.0% to -23.1%). Significant rank order correlations with TBW measures of fatness were obtained for DXA estimates of fatness (r=0.54, P=0.01), but not for estimates of fat by skinfold thickness (r=0.20, P=0.2) or BODPOD (r=0.25, P=0.1). Differences between both DXA and BODPOD and the reference TBW estimates of body fatness were not significant (P=0.06 and P=0.1 respectively); however, the difference in estimated body fatness between skinfold thickness and TBW was significant (P<0.001).
CONCLUSION: Estimates of body fatness in preschool children were inaccurate at the level of the individual child using all the methods, but DXA might provide unbiased estimates and a means of making relative assessments of body fatness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 685-691 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Iranian journal of pediatrics |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 16 Aug 2014 |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2014 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgmentThe authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The authors thank the RASCAL families for their participation in the study. The study was funded by the Scottish Executive Environmental and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) and Tehran University of Medical Sciences scholarship to Kurosh Djafarian. The funding body had no role in the content of the manuscript or the decision to publish.