Formulae Evaluation for Estimating Body Surface Area of Korean Children

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Medicine
• Biostatistics
• Human Exposure Studies

Background:

• Body surface area (BSA) is crucial for human exposure studies and pediatric clinical practice.
• Accurate BSA calculation is essential for appropriate dosing and risk assessment in children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the accuracy of seven different BSA formulas.
• To determine the most appropriate BSA formula for Korean children aged 1 to 18.

Main Methods:

• Utilized height and weight data from 4899 Korean children (ages 1-18) from the 2012-2014 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
• Calculated BSA using seven established formulas: Banerjee and Bhattacharya (1961), Fujimoto and Watanabe (1969), US EPA (1985), Gehan and George (1970), Boyd (1935), Haycock et al (1978), and Mosteller (1987).
• Compared formula predictions against average BSA values derived from all seven methods.

Main Results:

• All formulas showed a strong positive correlation with the average BSA.
• Formulas by Gehan and George (1970), US EPA (1985), and Boyd (1935) tended to overestimate BSA.
• Formulas by Banerjee and Bhattacharya (1961) and Fujimoto and Watanabe (1969) underestimated BSA, with the largest error (0.027 m²).
• Mosteller (1987) and Haycock et al (1978) formulas demonstrated the closest estimates to the average BSA, with minimal error (0.004 m²).

Conclusions:

• Mosteller's formula (1987) is recommended for general application in human exposure studies and clinical practice for Korean children.
• Haycock et al.'s formula (1978) is specifically recommended for children aged 1 to 2 years.