Tuesday, May 16, 2017

US researchers suggest better way to estimate children"s fat levels

http://type2diabetestreatment.net/uncategorized/us-researchers-suggest-better-way-to-estimate-childrens-fat-levels-2/
US researchers suggest better way to estimate children"s fat levels Alternative method to body mass index could be more accurate screening tool for overweight

Louise Prime

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Add to PDP Tracker Print

US researchers have compared methods of assessing body fatness in children. In a study* in JAMA Pediatrics they suggest that one method tested would be a more accurate replacement for z Body mass index (BMI) in screening for childhood obesity.
BMI — calculated by dividing body mass in kilograms by the square of height in metres — has long been used worldwide as a screening tool for overweight and obesity. But it was already known not to work as well in children as in adults. Instead, BMI z scores, based on BMI percentile, have been used to classify children and adolescents as normal weight, overweight or obese.
Researchers behind the study point out that being able to determine which children and adolescents are overweight accurately is central to international efforts to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity.
Their study compared several body fat indices, including the tri-ponderal mass index, or TMI (which is calculated by dividing a person"s mass by the cube of their height), with other body fat indices of the form body mass divided by height in estimating body fat levels in adolescents. They analysed cross-sectional data from the 1999 to 2006 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, covering 2,285 non-Hispanic white participants aged 8-29 years.
They used dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and anthropometric data to determine changes in body fat levels, body proportions, and the scaling relationships among body mass, height, and percent body fat. To assess the merits of each adiposity index, they used three criteria: stability with age, accuracy in estimating percent body fat, and accuracy in classifying adolescents as overweight vs normal weight.
They reported that for the population they were studying, TMI yielded greater stability with age and estimated percent body fat better than BMI. In addition, TMI misclassified adolescents as overweight vs normal weight less often than BMI z scores — and performed equally as well as updated BMI percentiles derived from the same data set.
The researchers concluded: "The tri-ponderal mass index estimates body fat levels more accurately than BMI in non-Hispanic white adolescents aged 8-17 years. Moreover, TMI diagnoses adolescents as overweight more accurately than BMI z scores and equally as well as updated BMI percentiles but is much simpler to use than either because it does not involve complicated percentiles. Taken together, it is worth considering replacing BMI z scores with TMI to estimate body fat levels in adolescents."

* Peterson CM, Su H, Thomas DM, et al. Tri-ponderal mass index vs body mass index in estimating body fat during adolescence. JAMA Pediatr. Published online May 15, 2017. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.0460.Type 2 Diabetes Treatment
Type 2 Diabetes Diet
Diabetes Destroyer Reviews
Original Article
#Uncategorized
#obesity_help

No comments:

Post a Comment