Validity assessment of a portable bioimpedance scale to estimate body fat percentage in White and African- American children and adolescents.

Objective The objective of the study was to determine accuracy of the Tanita SC-240 body composition analyser to measure paediatric percent body fat (% BF). Methods Eighty-nine African-American and white 5-18-year-olds participated in this study. % BF was estimated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry ( DXA) and by the Tanita SC-240. Results Overall % BF was 33.5 ± 10.5% ( Tanita SC-240) vs. 34.5 ± 8.7% ( DXA). There was no significant difference between the two measures ( P = 0.52, average error = −1.0%, average absolute error = 3.9%). The Tanita mean % BF estimates significantly differed from the DXA mean % BF in white boys ( P = 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.40) and white girls ( P = 0.006, Cohen's d = 0.48), but differences were of small effect. No differences in % BF estimates were found for African-American boys or girls. Conclusions In this sample, the Tanita SC-240 demonstrated acceptable accuracy for estimating % BF when compared with DXA, supporting its use in field studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]