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Published on: February 2, 2017
An assessment of methods for measuring body composition in full-term infants: A systematic review
Signe Schiødt1,2, Kathrine V R Hviid3,4, Nina R W Geiker5
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, Hvidovre, Denmark. signe.schioedt@gmail.com.
Insights
Accurate infant body composition measurement is crucial for preventing obesity. Air displacement plethysmography (ADP) is recommended for research settings in full-term infants, unlike less precise anthropometry.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric research
- Infant health
- Body composition analysis
Background:
- Establishing a gold standard for infant body composition measurement remains a challenge.
- Existing methods lack consensus for clinical and research applications in full-term infants.
- Accurate assessment is vital for early obesity prevention strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and identify the most accurate body composition measurement method for full-term infants.
- To provide guidance for clinical and research settings.
- To address the lack of consensus in infant body composition assessment.
Main Methods:
- Systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases.
- Inclusion of studies assessing body composition accuracy in full-term infants up to 2 years.
- Evaluation of various methods including anthropometry, DXA, BIA, QMR, isotope dilution, NIR, and ADP.
Main Results:
- Anthropometric equations showed inconsistent results.
- Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) demonstrated comparable results to air displacement plethysmography (ADP) with new techniques.
- Quantitative magnetic resonance (QMR), isotope dilution, and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) showed promise but had limited supporting studies.
- Air displacement plethysmography (ADP) exhibited agreement with deuterium dilution and multi-component models at a group level, with small bias.
Conclusions:
- Anthropometry, DXA, and BIA yielded variable results, necessitating further investigation.
- QMR, isotope dilution, and NIR show potential but require more research.
- Air displacement plethysmography (ADP) is identified as an accurate method for research settings in full-term infants.
- This review highlights research gaps in infant body composition assessment.
Background:
Numerous methods are available for measuring body composition in infants, however, there is no consensus on which approach is preferred. The aim of this study was to identify one such method for a clinical and research setting.
Methods:
A systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library to identify studies that investigated the accuracy of body composition methods in full-term infants up to 2 years of age.
Results:
Thirty out of 6643 identified records were included. Several anthropometric equations were investigated with inconsistent results. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) showed more comparable results to those assessed by air displacement plethysmography (ADP), when applying new techniques. Few studies assessed the accuracy of quantitative magnetic resonance (QMR), isotope dilution, and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR); nonetheless, they all performed well against reference methods. ADP showed agreement compared to deuterium dilution, 3-compartment-, and 4-compartment-models on group-level; however, there were discrepancies when compared to DXA.
Conclusions:
Anthropometry, DXA, BIA, and ultrasound showed varying results, highlighting the need for further research. QMR, isotope dilution, and NIR appeared promising, but evidence is limited due to few studies. ADP showed consistently small bias compared to multi-component models and isotope dilution.
Impact:
Accurate body composition assessment in infancy has the potential to improve prophylactic actions against obesity. There is relative consensus on the most accurate body composition assessment in pre-term infants in a research setting, however, this consensus has not been available for full-term infants until now. Measure of anthropometry performs with varying precision, suggesting very low feasibility of the method for body composition assessment. From a research perspective, air displacement plethysmography is an accurate method for measuring body composition in full-term infants. This systematic review identifies research gaps within the scientific field of infant body composition.
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