Anthropometric estimates of total and regional body fat in children aged 6-17 years

Abstract

Aim: To develop prediction equations for total and regional (trunk, abdominal, arms and legs) body fat using surface anthropometric measures in children aged 6–17 years. Methods: This was a cross-sectional correlation study of 70 Caucasian children aged 6–17 years recruited from a larger randomly sampled population-based study. The independent variables included age, mass, height, body mass index, waist and hip girth, and skinfold thicknesses at eight sites. Subscapular/triceps skinfold ratio was also calculated and entered as an independent variable. The dependent variables were total body percentage fat, and fat mass for total body, trunk, abdominal region of interest, arms and legs measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Partial least squares regression was used to determine the best predictive equation for fat percentage or fat mass in each body region in each sex. Results: Sex-specific prediction equations were developed with high coefficients of determination (r²), ranging from 0.869 to 0.936 in boys and from 0.900 to 0.979 in girls, absolute bias was low, and limits of agreement were narrow. Conclusion: Equations were developed, which were able to predict total and regional body fat of Caucasian children aged 6–17 years using surface anthropometric measurements with high predictive accuracy.