title: Comparison of methods to assess body fat in non-obese six to seven-year-old children.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. c.labee@bkk.umcg.nl
authors.forename: Carianne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: L'Abée
authors.forename: G Henk
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Visser
authors.forename: Eryn T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Liem
authors.forename: Dieuwertje E G
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Kok
authors.forename: Pieter J J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Sauer
authors.forename: Ronald P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Stolk
mesh_terms: 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