Agreement between body composition techniques in children and adolescents: narrative review of the literature

Body composition monitoring is important to understand the effect of diet, physical activity, illness and growth on body stores. Body composition determination by accuracy and reproducibility techniques is essential. The objective of this study was to analyze the agreement between body composition techniques in children and adolescents. Literature search was performed using the PubMed, Scielo and Google Scholar databases. Only observational studies realized in children and adolescents that analyze agreement between two or more body composition techniques were included. Thirty studies were included. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, air displacement plethysmography, hydrodensitometry, deuterium dilution and four compartment model were the techniques for body composition measurement and bioelectrical impedance and anthropometry were used to estimate body composition. Agreement and correlation between methods was influenced by study populations and by technique considered as gold standard for comparisons. In conclusion, there is a low agreement between the different methods to assess body composition. Correlation and agreement interpretation are essential for body composition assessment in children and adolescents. Is recommended the use of equations developed and validated in this populations.