Childhood single skinfold thickness is a better predictor for adult relative fat mass in females than the body mass index: Data from a 30-year longitudinal growth study

Abstract

Information on the prediction of adult relative fat mass (percent body fat,%BF) using measures from pre-pubertal ages and early childhood is scarce. In the present longitudinal study, we assess the development of different anthropometric indicators of percent body fat during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood in 37½-year-old females stratified for low and high percent body fat. Consequently, we study the predictability of percent body fat based on simple anthropometric measurements during childhood and adolescence. Anthropometric data from the Belgian longitudinal experimental growth study “LEGS” were used. Beginning in 1969, five yearly cohorts of about 100 individuals each (mean age 6 years) were recruited in public kindergartens. Of the original 515 participants (260 males, 255 females) that were measured annually from age 6 to 18 years, 59 males and 60 females agreed to participate in a follow-up study in 2004. During the follow-up measurements, the participants were invited for a body-composition assessment by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). We stratified the participants into low (%BF-BIA < 35%) and high (%BF-BIA≥35%) relative fat mass samples. Pearson correlations were calculated and used as tracking coefficients. Multiple stepwise linear regression was applied with anthropometric variables at each age separately as predictors for adult percent body fat, expressed as%BF-BIA, %BF-Segal, and %BF-D&W (Durnin & Womersley, 1974). The results indicate that a single skinfold thickness during adolescence is a better predictor for adult percent body fat than adolescent body mass index. Additionally, our results suggest that this holds during childhood as early as from age 8 onwards. The use of single skinfold measurements as predictors for adult adiposity and obesity is supported by other arguments, including: (1) body mass index as a proxy for overweight does not discriminate between fat mass and fat-free mass, and (2) an excess of adipose tissue is more strongly associated with morbidity than the body mass index.