Body fat-based weight norms for children and youths.
BACKGROUND
The issue of establishing reference values, especially of those pertaining to somatic features, is of importance for an assessment of normal growth. It was assumed that norms ought to reflect not the actually existing status but the recommended one. Thus, weight-height relations, including body mass index (BMI), ought to be established for that fraction of the general population, in which body fat content is within physiologically acceptable limits.


OBJECTIVE
To construct weight-to-height percentile norms for boys and girls aged 7-20 years.


METHODS
A cohort of healthy boys (n=1282) and girls (n=1150) attending schools in the Eastern regions of Poland participated in the study. Their body height, body mass and body fat content were determined, the latter by skinfold (Slaughter's method) or bioimpedance measurements. The data for constructing normal values of body fat content were compiled from diverse sources so as to associate them smoothly with the normal values for adults.


RESULTS
By applying the proposed lower and upper limits of body fat, 1007 boys (78.5%) and 581 girls (50.5%) with acceptable fat content were selected for constructing percentile norms of body mass expected for height, as well as for BMI.


CONCLUSIONS
The existing norms for BMI of children and youths, also the Polish ones, differ from each other, as these were not based on data from subjects with acceptable body fat and assessing body fat content from BMI is known to be markedly biased. Unlike BMI, the presented percentile weight-for-height norms are age-independent in the range 7-20 years and are thus much easier to use. Those norms may be recommended as a tool in assessing the course of normal growth, as well as in developmental disorders and possible clinical intervention.
Stupnicki
Romuald
R
Department of Statistics and Computer Sciences, Chair of Anatomy and Biomechanics, Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland.
Tomaszewski
Paweł
P
Milde
Katarzyna
K
Czeczelewski
Jan
J
Lichota
Małgorzata
M
Głogowska
Joanna
J
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000737:chemistry; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D001823:Body Composition; D050218:Body Fat Distribution; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D056865:Ideal Body Weight; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D012016:Reference Values; D055815:Young Adult