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Bioelectric impedance analyses (BIA) provides a valid and reliable measure of body composition in field, clinical, and research settings if standard protocol procedures are followed, and population‐specific equations are available and utilized. The objective of this study was to create and cross‐validate a new BIA body composition equation with representative healthy weight (HW), overweight (OW), and obese (OB) young children. Participants were 436 children who were 5–11 years of age. Dual‐energy absorptiometry fat‐free mass (FFM) was used as the criterion measure and a single frequency tetra‐polar BIA device was used to create the new BIA equation. The new BIA equation explained 95.2% of the variance in FFM with no statistical shrinkage upon cross‐validation. The use of this equation may help to identify effective intervention strategies to prevent or combat childhood obesity, and may assist in additional conditions or treatments where information concerning body composition measures would provide greater accuracy and sensitivity measures for preventing or combating disease.

The quality of the instrument used in the measurement process of survey data is fundamental to successful outcomes. Issues regarding content and structure are often addressed during instrument development, but the rating scale is just as important, and too often overlooked. Specifically for Likert-type questionnaires, the words used to describe rating categories and the placement of a neutral or not sure category is at the core of this measurement issue. This study utilizes the Rasch model to assess the quality of an instrument and structure of the rating scale for a typical data set collected at an institution of higher education. The importance of category placement and an evaluation of the use of a middle category for Likert-type survey data are highlighted.

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