Assessing Body Fat of Children by Skinfold Thickness, Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis, and Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry: A Validation Study Among Malay Children Aged 7 to 11 Years

This study aims to validate skinfold (SKF) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) against dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in determining body fat percentage (BF%) of Malay children aged 7 to 11 years. A total of 160 children had their BF% assessed using SKF and BIA, with DXA as the criterion method. Four SKF equations (SKFBray, SKFJohnston, SKFSlaughter, and SKFGoran) and 4 BIA equations (BIA(Manufacturer), BIA(Houtkooper), BIA(Rush), and BIA(Kushner)) were used to estimate BF%. Mean age, weight, and height were 9.4 +/- 1.1years, 30.5 +/- 9.9 kg, and 131.3 +/- 8.4 cm. All equations significantly underestimated BF% (P < .05). BIA equations had reasonable agreement with DXA and were independent of BF% with BIA(Manufacturer) being the best equation. Although BIA underestimates BF% as compared with DXA, BIA was more suitable to measure BF% in a population that is similar to this study sample than SKF, suggesting a need to develop new SKF equations that are population specific.