Body composition in children: methods of assessment

Summary

Introduction

There are a number of specific areas in the study of child growth and development and paediatric medicine where accurate and reliable knowledge of body composition would be advantageous. In the study of the physical growth and development of children and adolescents anthropometric techniques such as measuring stature and sitting height have long been used to obtain information on linear growth of the child. Detailed knowledge regarding the growth of the tissue compartments of the body, for example, body fat, water, and the lean body mass has been less easily forthcoming using these techniques. Changes in body weight tell us little about the growth of individual tissues. The use of skinfold calipers for the measurement of skinfold thickness augments other anthropometric measurements. However, there is increasing recognition that skinfold measurements and moreover their extrapolation to measures of total body fatness are fraught with problems and assumptions that are not easily overcome or validated (Martin et al., 1985).

To understand and describe the changes that occur in body composition throughout growth would certainly give a new insight into the growth process. There is still much to be learnt of the effect of different hormones on specific body tissues and of the influence of body composition abnormalities in early life on subsequent growth and development. The possible role of body composition in pubertal and reproductive events is still also still far from clear (Frisch & McArthur, 1974; Cameron, 1976; Frisch, 1984; Malina, 1983).

Moreover, there are situations where disturbances in body composition are of clinical importance to the paediatrician.