Concordance between methods of estimating body fat in pediatric and adolescent age

Background and objective: The percentage of fat (%BF), essential data in the health or nutrition field, can be estimated by different methods. This work compares the %BF values obtained by anthropometry, Near Infrared Interactance (NIR), and Bioimpedance Analysis (BIA), in childhood and adolescence. Material and Methods: The sample consisted of 1015 schoolchildren aged 9 to 16 years. Height, weight, and four adipose folds were measured: tricipital, bicipital, subscapular, and suprailiac. The %BF by anthropometry was calculated using a specific formula based on body density (BD). A tetrapolar analyzer was used for the BIA calculation. The optical density in the biceps was measured for the one observed by NIR. Results: The high correlation and determination coefficients show that the relationship between %BF by anthropometry, BIA, or NIR is very strong, mainly between the first two. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) results between Anthropometry and BIA show an almost perfect agreement. Its graphical contrast attests that the correlation is higher in the male sex. In general, the agreement between Anthropometry and BIA is higher than between Anthropometry and NIR. Conclusions: The three techniques used to measure %BF show high concordance. All ICC values between pairs of methods are above 0.90. The comparison of %BF by anthropometry with BIA or NIR shows that the affinity is higher in intermediate adiposity percentages than in extreme ones. This trend occurs in both sexes and age groups.