Body fat assessed from body density and estimated from skinfold thickness in normal children and children with cystic fibrosis.

Abstract

Body density and skinfold thickness at four sites were measured in 140 normal boys, 168 normal girls, and 6 boys and 7 girls with cystic fibrosis, all aged 8-14 y. Prediction equations for the normal boys and girls for the estimation of body-fat content from skinfold measurements were derived from linear regression of body density vs the log of the sum of the skinfold thickness. The relationship between body density and the log of the sum of the skinfold measurements differed from normal for the boys and girls with cystic fibrosis because of their high body density even though their large residual volume was corrected for. However the sum of skinfold measurements in the children with cystic fibrosis did not differ from normal. Thus body fat percent of these children with cystic fibrosis was underestimated when calculated from body density and invalid when calculated from skinfold thickness.

Predicting percentage body fat through waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) in Spanish schoolchildren

“…The majority of formulas for estimating fat percentages in children under 18 years old were elaborated with regression techniques applied to samples from populations from a determined origin and age range, as in the current work. Some of these equations estimate relative adiposity from body density (24,25,38,39) while others do this directly by measuring various skinfolds (40)(41)(42)(43)(44) . Other mathematical expressions obtain fat mass or fat-free mass using factors such as weight, height and triceps skinfold (45,46) .…”

Skinfold thickness measurements are better predictors of body fat percentage than body mass index in male Spanish children and adolescents

“…That is the reason why a certain number of equations have been developed for the prediction of body density from simple anthropometric measurements. The most widely known, use skinfold thicknesses as independent variables (Deurenberg et al, 1990;Durnin & Rahaman, 1967;Slaughter et al, 1988;Johnston et al, 1988;Brook, 1971).…”

“…An easy method of assessing the percentage of body fat in children would be measurement of the subcutaneous fat layer, namely skinfold thickness; however, due to a changing subcutaneous adipose tissue distribution during maturation, the relation between skinfold thicknesses and body density (and, hence, total body fat) could be strongly dependent on biological age, which could hamper the assessment of percentage body fat by skinfold thicknesses. Despite that some equations exist for the estimation of body fatness from skinfold thickness in children (Slaughter et al, 1988;Johnston et al, 1988;Brook, 1971;Deurenberg et al, 1990) some authors and groups tend to use body mass index as an indicator of adiposity (Rolland-Cachera et al, 1982). Concerning equations for the estimation of body fatness from skinfold thickness, there is evidence that some skinfold equations are highly population speci®c (Frerichs et al, 1979;Boileau et al, 1981).…”

Body fat measurement in adolescents: comparison of skinfold thickness equations with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry

“…There are a group of logarithmic (Durnin & Rahaman, 1967;Brook, 1971;Durnin & Womersley, 1974;Johnston et al, 1988;Deurenberg et al, 1990;Sarría et al, 1998) and linear equations (Sloan et al, 1962;Wilmore & Behnke, 1970) that predict the body density first, and then %FM from body density with any of the equations performed by Siri (1961), Lohman et al (1984) and Weststrate and Deurenberg (1989). Other groups of quadratic (Slaughter et al, 1988) and linear (Slaughter et al, 1988;Lean et al, 1996;Bray et al, 2001) equations predict %FM directly from skinfold thicknesses.…”