A new BIA equation estimating the body composition of young children

Bioelectric impedance analyses (BIA) provides a valid and reliable measure of body composition in field, clinical, and research settings if standard protocol procedures are followed, and population-specific equations are available and utilized. The objective of this study was to create and cross-validate a new BIA body composition equation with representative healthy weight (HW), overweight (OW), and obese (OB) young children. Participants were 436 children who were 5-11 years of age. Dual-energy absorptiometry fat-free mass (FFM) was used as the criterion measure and a single frequency tetra-polar BIA device was used to create the new BIA equation. The new BIA equation explained 95.2% of the variance in FFM with no statistical shrinkage upon cross-validation. The use of this equation may help to identify effective intervention strategies to prevent or combat childhood obesity, and may assist in additional conditions or treatments where information concerning body composition measures would provide greater accuracy and sensitivity measures for preventing or combating disease.