title: Body fat measurement in adolescent girls with type 1 diabetes: a comparison of skinfold equations against dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Skinfold measurement is an inexpensive and widely used technique for assessing the percentage of body fat (%BF). This study assessed the accuracy of prediction equations for %BF based on skinfold measurements compared to dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in girls with type 1 diabetes and healthy age-matched controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  We included 49 healthy girls and 44 girls with diabetes aged 12-19 years old, comparing the predicted %BF based on skinfold measurements and the %BF values obtained by a Lunar DPX-L scanner. The agreement between the methods was assessed using an Bland-Altman plot.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The skinfold measurements were significantly higher in girls with diabetes (p = 0.003) despite a nonsignificant difference in total %BF (p = 0.1). A significant association between bias and %BF was found for all tested equations in the Bland-Altman plots. Regression analysis showed that the association between skinfold measurements and %BF measured by DXA differed significantly (p = 0.039) between the girls with diabetes and the healthy controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The accuracy of skinfold thickness equations for assessment of %BF in adolescent girls with diabetes is poor in comparison with DXA measurements as criterion. Our findings highlight the need for the development of new prediction equations for girls with type 1 diabetes.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. stefan.sarnblad@oru.se.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Särnblad
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medical Sciences, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Magnuson
authors.affiliation: Department of Sport Medicine, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway.|Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ekelund
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Åman
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D050154:Adiposity; D000293:Adolescent; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012885:Skinfold Thickness
keywords: Adolescents; Body composition; Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry; Skinfold measurements; Type 1 diabetes