Reference Centiles for the Evaluation of Nutritional Status in Children using Body Fat Percentage, Fat Mass and Lean Body Mass Index

Background: Body fat percentage (BF%), fat mass index (FMI), and lean body mass index (LBMI) are often used to evaluate the nutritional status of children. Until now, no pediatric FMI reference centiles are applicable for GE Healthcare Lunar DXA systems. The aim of the study was to generate age-specific BF%, FMI, and LBMI references centiles for GE Healthcare Lunar DXA systems. Methodology: Published values from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2004 (age 8-20 years) were used to generate the reference centiles for the non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Mexican American NHANES population. The LMS and LMSP methods were used to generate the reference centiles. Results: Data of 2433 non-Hispanic black children (972 females), 2026 non-Hispanic white children (873 females), and 2547 Mexican American children (1010 females) were eligible. Conclusions: We presented age-specific reference centiles for BF%, FMI, and LBMI for children and adolescents which were ethnicity specific (non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, and Mexican American) and directly applicable to Prodigy and iDXA GE Healthcare Lunar systems with software version 14.0. We proposed the use of BF%, FMI, and LBMI together to evaluate nutritional status in children.