Adjustment of fat-free mass and fat mass for height in children aged 8 y

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity Vol. 26; no. 7; pp. 947 - 952
• Main Authors: Wells, J.C.K, Cole, T.J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basingstoke Nature Publishing Group 01.07.2002; Nature Publishing
• Subjects: Adipose Tissue; Biological and medical sciences; Body Composition; Body Height; Body Mass Index; body water; Body Weight; Child; children; Children & youth; Childrens health; Cross-Sectional Studies; Deuterium; Epidemiology; experimental design; fat free mass; Female; Great Britain; Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology; Humans; lean body mass; Male; Medical sciences; Nutrition research; Nutritional survey. Food supply and nutritional requirement; Obesity; Pediatrics; Regression Analysis; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; Great Britain; Human; Cross sectional study; Size; Lean body mass; Curve fitting; Child; Fat mass; Body composition
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0802027

Objective: To explore the relationships between height and (a) fat-free mass (FFM) and (b) fat mass (FM) in children in order to determine the optimum means of adjusting body composition for height. Design: Cross-sectional study. Subjects: Sixty-nine children aged 8 y. Measurements and Methods: Weight and height (HT) were measured, and total body water by deuterium dilution for estimation of fat-free mass and fat mass. The indices FFM/HT2 and FM/HT2 were calculated, as were the indices FFM/HTp and FM/HTp where P was selected in order to eliminate the correlation of these indices with height. Results: FFM was optimally adjusted for height by calculating FFM/HT2. FM was optimally adjusted by calculating FM/HT6. However, height accounted for <8% of the variation in FM/HT2, indicating that the bias of this simpler index is small. Conclusions: Different adjustments of FFM and FM for height are possible, depending on the study design. The indices FFM/HT2 and FM/HT2 are appropriate for many purposes, and have the advantage of expressing both aspects of body composition in common units. However, in some scenarios a more sophisticated approach is required for evaluating body fatness.