Reference Centile Curves for Body Fat Percentage, Fat-free Mass, Muscle Mass and Bone Mass Measured by Bioelectrical Impedance in Asian Indian Children and Adolescents

Objectives: To create gender-specific percentile curves for percent body fat (%BF) by Bio electrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) for screening adiposity and risk of hypertension in Indian children and generate reference curves for percent fat-free mass (%FFM), muscle mass (%LM) and bone mineral content (BMC) by using bioelectrical impedance. Design: Secondary analysis of data from previous multicenter cross-sectional studies. Setting: Private schools from five regions of India. Participants: A random sample of 3850 healthy school children (2067 boys) (5-17 yr) from private schools in five major Indian cities. Methods: Anthropometry, blood pressure (BP) and body composition were measured by bioelectrical impedance. Reference curves were generated by the LMS method. Main outcome measures: % BF, %FFM, %LM, BMC and BP Results: Median % BF increased by 6% from 5 to 13 years of age and declined (around 2%) up to 17 years in boys. In girls, % BF increased by 8% from 5 to 14 years and thereafter declined by 3%. Based upon the risk of hypertension, the new cut-offs of 75th and 85th percentile of % BF were proposed for detecting over fatness and excess fatness in children. Median %FFM was 90% at 5 yrs and decreased till 12 years, and then showed a slight increase to 84% at 17 yrs in boys. In girls, it was 86% at 5 yrs and decreased till 15 yrs, and plateaued at 71.8% at 17 yrs. Conclusions: Reference curves for percent body fat for Indian children would be useful to screen children for health risk in clinical set up.