Comparing body composition measures among Malaysian primary school children.

The global rise in the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has necessitated the need for global standards, which is very important for cross-cultural or national comparisons, and to assess the effectiveness of various proposed measures of body composition. In this paper, the body composition of 411 children, consisting of 163 boys and 248 girls, aged 10.49 ± 1.12 years, was analysed based on body mass index (BMI) and two body fat references from Korea (BFK) and the UK (BFUK). BMI was the most sensitive estimate of adiposity (overweight = 15.8%; obesity = 6.6%), when compared with BFUK (overweight = 7.8%; obesity = 3.2%) and the BFK (overweight = 10.2%; obesity = 0.5%). Although, there was significant correlation between BFK and BFUK (r = 0.89, p < 0.0001), BFK and BMI (r = 0.644, p < 0.0001), and BFUK and BMI (r = 0.646, p < 0.0001), they fairly agreed (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.537), as BMI reliably estimated body fat in normal weight, but overestimated body fat in overweight and obese children. Of all the demographic and physical activity variables, only gender was significantly associated with difference in body fat estimation, as BMI estimation of body fat was higher in girls than in boys. Hence, we must be cautious in using BMI as a surrogate for body fat, especially among overweight and obese children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]