Agreement between skinfold-predicted percent fat and percent fat from whole-body bioelectrical impedance analysis in children and adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study was to determine the agreement of percent body fat estimates and obesity classification derived via whole-body bioelectrical impedance analysis (% BF-BIA) with percent body fat estimates and obesity classification from skinfolds (% BF-SF) in children and adolescents.


METHODS
BIA and SF data were collected on 609 boys and 645 girls aged 7 to 14 years.


RESULTS
Although moderate correlations were observed between the measures, Bland-Altman analyses revealed fixed and proportional bias, and 95% limits of agreement covered a range of over 20% BF. Agreement of obesity classification was moderately high in boys (Kq = 0.77) and girls (Kq = 0.81), but fewer children were classified as obese via % BF-BIA (14.5%) than via % BF-SF (19.8%).


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that whole-body BIA provides % BF estimates that are systematically different from % BF estimates from skinfolds in children and adolescents.
Rowe
David A
DA
Faculty of Health, Sport and Science, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, Wales CF37 1DL, UK. darowe@glam.ac.uk
Dubose
Katrina D
KD
Donnelly
Joseph E
JE
Mahar
Matthew T
MT
D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000293:Adolescent; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D017097:Electric Impedance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012885:Skinfold Thickness