Comparison of methods to assess body fat in non-obese six to seven-year-old children.
OBJECTIVE
Different non-invasive methods exist to evaluate total body fat in children. Most methods have shown to be able to confirm a high fat percentage in children with overweight and obesity. No data are available on the estimation of total body fat in non-obese children. The aim of this study is to compare total body fat, assessed by different methods in non-obese children.


METHODS
We compared total body fat, assessed by isotope dilution, dual energy X-ray, skinfold thickness, bioelectrical impedance analysis, combination of these methods as well as BMI in 30 six to seven-year-old children.


RESULTS
The children had a mean BMI of 16.01kg/m(2) (range 13.51-20.32) and five children were overweight according to international criteria. Different methods showed rather different absolute values for total body fat. Bland-Altman analysis showed that the difference between the DEXA method and isotope dilution was dependent on the fat percentage. Children with the same BMI show a marked variation in total body fat ranging from 8% to 22% as estimated from the isotope dilution method.


CONCLUSIONS
Non-invasive methods are presently not suited to assess the absolute amount of total body fat in 6-7 years old children.
L'Abée
Carianne
C
Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. c.labee@bkk.umcg.nl
Visser
G Henk
GH
Liem
Eryn T
ET
Kok
Dieuwertje E G
DE
Sauer
Pieter J J
PJ
Stolk
Ronald P
RP
D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D000465:Algorithms; D050218:Body Fat Distribution / Q000379:methods*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D017097:Electric Impedance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011865:Radioisotope Dilution Technique; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012885:Skinfold Thickness; D013223:Statistics as Topic