title: Fat mass index performs best in monitoring management of obesity in prepubertal children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An early and accurate recognition of success in treating obesity may increase the compliance of obese children and their families to intervention programs. This observational, prospective study aimed to evaluate the ability and the time to detect a significant reduction of adiposity estimated by body mass index (BMI), percentage of fat mass (%FM), and fat mass index (FMI) during weight management in prepubertal obese children.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a cohort of 60 prepubertal obese children aged 3-9 years included in an outpatient weight management program, BMI, %FM, and FMI were monitored monthly; the last two measurements were assessed using air displacement plethysmography. The outcome measures were the reduction of >5% of each indicator and the time to achieve it.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The rate of detection of the outcome was 33.3% (95% CI: 25.9-41.6) using BMI, significantly lower (p<0.001) than either 63.3% using %FM (95% CI: 50.6-74.8) or 70.0% (95% CI: 57.5-80.1) using FMI. The median time to detect the outcome was 71 days using FMI, shorter than 88 days using %FM, and similar to 70 days using BMI. The agreement between the outcome detected by FMI and by %FM was high (kappa 0.701), but very low between the success detected by BMI and either FMI (kappa 0.231) or %FM (kappa 0.125).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  FMI achieved the best combination of ability and swiftness to identify reduction of adiposity during monitoring of weight management in prepubertal obese children.
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Lab, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal. Electronic address: l.pereira.silva@chlc.min-saude.pt.
authors.forename: Luís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pereira-da-Silva
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Lab, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Mónica Pitta-Grós
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Dias
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Lab, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Elisabete
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dionísio
authors.affiliation: Research Unit, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Virella
authors.affiliation: Research Unit, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: Outpatient Clinic for Prepubertal Obese Children, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Catarina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Diamantino
authors.affiliation: Outpatient Clinic for Prepubertal Obese Children, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Anabela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Lab, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal; Outpatient Clinic for Prepubertal Obese Children, Hospital de Dona Estefânia, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Gonçalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cordeiro-Ferreira
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000503:physiopathology*; D050154:Adiposity / Q000502:physiology*; D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Body mass index; Crianças pré-púberes; Fat mass index; Monitoramento; Monitoring; Obesidade; Obesity; Percentage of fat mass; Percentual de massa gorda; Prepubertal children; Índice de massa corporal; Índice de massa gorda