A Scoping Review of Instruments Used to Measure Weight and Body Composition in Infants Under 1 Year

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics
• Clinical Trials
• Anthropometry

Background:

• Infant weight and body composition are critical health indicators.
• Standardized outcome measurement instruments (OMIs) are essential for reliable clinical trial data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify existing OMIs for infant weight and body composition in children up to 1 year of age.
• To understand how these OMIs are utilized in clinical trials.
• To inform the selection of appropriate OMIs for future research.

Main Methods:

• Scoping review of EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases up to September 2023.
• Inclusion of studies reporting trials with healthy, full-term infants (≤1 year) and anthropometric OMIs.
• Narrative synthesis of study and OMI characteristics.

Main Results:

• Seventy-two studies were included, reporting weight (n=71), weight change (n=33), and body composition (n=10).
• Common OMIs for weight included undefined and electronic scales; results often expressed as z scores.
• Eight body composition OMIs were identified, with calipers and air displacement plethysmography being frequent.

Conclusions:

• Significant heterogeneity exists in OMIs used for infant anthropometric outcomes.
• Further research is required to establish standardized, feasible, and reliable OMIs for infant trials.