Assessment of body composition in pediatric overweight and obesity: A systematic review of the reliability and validity of common techniques
- 6 May 2020
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Wiley in Obesity Reviews
- Vol. 21 (8)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13041
Abstract
Accurate measurement of body composition is required to improve health outcomes in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity. This systematic review aimed to summarize the reliability and validity of field and laboratory body composition techniques employed in pediatric obesity studies to facilitate technique selection for research and clinical practice implementation. A systematic search in MEDLINE (via PubMed), EMBASE, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus from inception up to December 2019 was conducted, using a combination of the following concepts: body composition, pediatric overweight/obesity, and reliability/validity. The search strategy resulted in 66 eligible articles reporting reliability (19.7%), agreement between body composition techniques cross sectionally (80.3%), and/or diagnostic test accuracy (10.6%) in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity (mean age range = 7.0–16.5 years). Skinfolds, air‐displacement plethysmography (ADP), dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA), and ultrasound presented as reliable techniques. DXA, ADP, and isotope dilution showed similar and the best agreement with reference standards. Compared with these laboratory techniques, the validity of estimating body composition by anthropometric equations, skinfolds, and BIA was inferior. In conclusion, the assessment of body composition by laboratory techniques cannot be replaced by field techniques due to introduction of measurement errors, which potentially conceal actual changes in body components.Funding Information
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Alberta Innovates
This publication has 83 references indexed in Scilit:
- Use of Fat Mass and Fat Free Mass Standard Deviation Scores Obtained Using Simple Measurement Methods in Healthy Children and Patients: Comparison with the Reference 4-Component ModelPLOS ONE, 2013
- Predicting volumes of metabolically important whole-body adipose tissue compartments in overweight and obese adolescents by different MRI approaches and anthropometryEuropean Journal of Radiology, 2012
- QUADAS-2: A Revised Tool for the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy StudiesAnnals of Internal Medicine, 2011
- Evaluation of DXA against the four-component model of body composition in obese children and adolescents aged 5–21 yearsInternational Journal of Obesity, 2010
- Comparison of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, air displacement plethysmography and bioelectrical impedance analysis for the assessment of body composition in severely obese Caucasian children and adolescentsBritish Journal of Nutrition, 2008
- Body Fat Estimation Using Bioelectrical ImpedanceHormone Research in Paediatrics, 2007
- Early adiposity rebound: causes and consequences for obesity in children and adultsInternational Journal of Obesity, 2006
- Composition of the fat-free mass in obese and nonobese children: matched case–control analysesInternational Journal of Obesity, 2004
- Underestimation of percentage fat mass measured by bioelectrical impedance analysis compared to dual energy X-ray absorptiometry method in obese childrenEuropean Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2001
- The prediction of total body water and extracellular water from bioelectric impedance in obese childrenEuropean Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1997