Al-Ati Tareq, Wells Jonathan, Ward Leigh C
Food and Nutrition Program, Environment and Life Sciences Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, P.O. Box 24885, Safat13109, Kuwait.
Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK.
Public Health Nutr. 2025 Apr 21;28(1):e95. doi: 10.1017/S1368980025000503.
Childhood obesity is increasing in many countries, including Kuwait. Currently, adiposity is most commonly assessed from simple anthropometric measurements, e.g. height and weight or combined as body mass index (BMI). This is despite these surrogate measurements being poor indices of adiposity. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a popular method for the assessment of body composition providing a measurement of adiposity as absolute fat mass (FM) or FM expressed as a percentage of body weight (%BF). BIA is, however, an indirect predictive method. This study developed a BIA-based prediction equation for body composition assessment in Kuwaiti children and, additionally, a prediction equation for %BF based on sum of skin-fold (SSF) thickness measurements.
A cross-sectional design was used with primary school recruitment.
School population in Kuwait City; in-clinic assessments.
158 Kuwaiti children aged 7-9 years. Body composition assessed using bioimpedance spectroscopy and skin-folds with prediction equations generate against deuterium dilution measurement of total body water and fat-free mass (FFM) as reference.
The newly developed and cross-validated BIA equation predicted FFM with minimal bias (< 1%) and acceptable 2 sd limits of agreement (±1·6 kg equivalent to ±10%) improving on the predictive performance of comparable published equations. Similarly, SSF predicted %BF with small bias (0·2 %BF) but relatively wide limits of agreement (±7 %BF).
These new equations are suitable for practical use for nutritional assessment in Kuwaiti children, particularly in epidemiological or public health settings although their applicability in other populations requires further research.
包括科威特在内的许多国家儿童肥胖率都在上升。目前，肥胖程度最常通过简单的人体测量指标来评估，例如身高和体重，或合并计算为体重指数（BMI）。尽管这些替代指标并不能很好地反映肥胖程度。生物电阻抗分析（BIA）是一种常用的身体成分评估方法，可测量肥胖程度，以绝对脂肪量（FM）或脂肪量占体重的百分比（%BF）来表示。然而，BIA是一种间接预测方法。本研究针对科威特儿童开发了一种基于BIA的身体成分评估预测方程，此外，还开发了一种基于皮褶厚度总和（SSF）测量的%BF预测方程。
采用横断面设计，从小学招募研究对象。
科威特市的学校人群；临床评估。
158名7 - 9岁的科威特儿童。使用生物电阻抗光谱法和皮褶测量法评估身体成分，并根据以氘稀释法测量的全身水和去脂体重（FFM）作为参考生成预测方程。
新开发并经过交叉验证的BIA方程预测FFM时偏差极小（<1%），且一致性界限的2 sd可接受（±1.6 kg，相当于±10%），比已发表的同类方程的预测性能有所提高。同样，SSF预测%BF时偏差较小（0.2 %BF），但一致性界限相对较宽（±7 %BF）。
这些新方程适用于科威特儿童营养评估的实际应用，特别是在流行病学或公共卫生环境中，尽管它们在其他人群中的适用性还需要进一步研究。
