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Validity and accuracy of body fat prediction equations using anthropometrics measurements in adolescents

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Abstract

Background

The pediatric relative fat mass (RFM) has been recently presented and validated as an index for estimating percentage body fat (%BF) in North American children and adolescents. Similar to body mass index (BMI) and tri-ponderal mass index (TMI), RFM uses anthropometric measures (i.e., weight, height and waist circumference) to estimate body composition. The primary purpose of this study was to validate the newly developed RFM equation for %BF prediction in Southern Brazilian adolescents; as secondary objective, we compared %BF estimation from BMI- and TMI-derived equations.

Methods

A total of 631 individuals (434 boys) aged 11 to 18 were analyzed. Bland–Altman analyses were used to determine concordance between predicted equations and %BF measured by DXA; results are presented using mean difference (i.e., bias) and standard deviation. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for %BF percentile classifications.

Results

RFM underestimated %BF in 65.2% of boys (− 4.3 ± 2.8%) and 84.8% of girls (− 5.3 ± 2.7%). In contrast, TMI overestimated %BF in 62.9% of boys (4.0 ± 2.9%) and 56.3% (3.5 ± 3.0%) of girls. The performance of BMI showed mixed results; %BF was overestimated in 68.4% of boys (5.0 ± 4.0%) and underestimated in 67.5% of girls (− 3.9 ± 2.6%), all p < 0.001. Although, RFM had the highest specificity for %BF percentile classifications, sensitivity was low and inferior to BMI and TMI.

Conclusion

TMI was superior to RFM and BMI in predicting %BF in Southern Brazilian adolescents. Using RFM, BMI or TMI equations for %BF prediction without a population-specific correction factor may lead to incorrect interpretations. We suggest that correction factors should be investigated to improve the accuracy of these surrogate indices for body composition assessment.

Level of evidence

Level V, cross sectional descriptive study.

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Data availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

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Funding

WLR and LU received funding from Programa de Pesquisa para o Sistema Único de Saúde: Gestão Compartilhada em Saúde PPSUS—edition 04/2012, Project number: 41614—FA, agreement 982/2013 with Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná. CEO is supported by the Alberta Diabetes Institute and a recipient of the 2018 Alberta SPOR Graduate Studentship in Patient-Oriented Research, which is jointly funded by Alberta Innovates and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. NL is researcher of Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). The funding body had no role in the design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; the writing of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Author notes

  1. Wagner Luis Ripka and Camila E. Orsso have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering, Universidade Tecnológica Federal Do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

    Wagner L. Ripka & Leandra Ulbricht

  2. Department of Physical Education, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

    Wagner L. Ripka & Neiva Leite

  3. Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health and Research, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Camila E. Orsso, Andrea M. Haqq & Carla M. Prado

  4. Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Walter C. Mackenzie Centre, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Andrea M. Haqq

Authors
  1. Wagner L. Ripka
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  2. Camila E. Orsso
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  4. Carla M. Prado
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Contributions

WLR contributed in designing, writing, and statistical analysis of this study. CO was responsible for data interpretation and writing. LU contributed with statistical analysis and conducting the study. AMQ, CMP, NL are responsible to data interpretation and manuscript revision. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wagner L. Ripka.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study protocol has been approved by the ethics committee of the Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (Plataforma Brasil system, nº11583113.7.0000.5547).

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All of the participants signed and approved a written informed consent before participation in the study.

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Ripka, W.L., Orsso, C.E., Haqq, A.M. et al. Validity and accuracy of body fat prediction equations using anthropometrics measurements in adolescents. Eat Weight Disord 26, 879–886 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-00918-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-00918-3

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