[Using equations for identifying and classifying children and adolescents' body fat]

Area of Science:

• Pediatric endocrinology
• Human body composition analysis
• Anthropometry

Background:

• Accurate body fat percentage (BFP) estimation is crucial for pediatric health assessment.
• Existing BFP estimation methods, such as Slaughter's anthropometric equation and Deurenberg's BMI-based equations, are widely used but may yield different results.
• Understanding the agreement between these methods is essential for reliable health monitoring in children and adolescents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the correlation and agreement between body fat percentage (BFP) estimated using Slaughter's anthropometric equation and Deurenberg's body mass index (BMI)-based equations.
• To assess the consistency of body fat predictions from these two distinct methodologies in a pediatric population.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 1,341 children and adolescents (7-15 years old).
• Calculated BFP using Slaughter's skinfold-based equation and Deurenberg's BMI-based equation.
• Employed statistical analyses including Wilcoxon test, Spearman correlation, Bland-Altman plots, and Kappa index to compare the two methods.

Main Results:

• A high correlation (r > 0.75) was observed between Slaughter's and Deurenberg's equations.
• Statistically significant differences in BFP values were found between the two equations for both males and females.
• Slight agreement (Kappa index ≤ 0.4) was noted between the body fat percentages derived from the two methods.

Conclusions:

• Despite a high correlation, Slaughter's and Deurenberg's equations demonstrate poor agreement in estimating body fat percentage in children and adolescents.
• The equations provide differing body fat values across all levels, suggesting caution when using them interchangeably for pediatric body composition assessment.