Biostatistics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Biostatistics, including details on statistics, uncertainty, probability, modeling. | ||||||||
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Ethnic and gender differences in body fat in British schoolchildren as measured by DXA.Shaw NJ, Crabtree NJ, Kibirige MS, Fordham JN Department of Endocrinology, Birmingham Children's Hospital, Birmingham, UK. nick.shaw@bch.nhs.uk BACKGROUND: There are known to be ethnic differences in body composition in adults which are related to ethnic differences in adult disease. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate gender and ethnic differences in percentage body fat in British schoolchildren and to compare these differences with classification of obesity using body mass index (BMI) criteria. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study of 1251 healthy children and adolescents aged 5-18 years from white, South Asian and African-Caribbean ethnic groups. Percentage body fat was determined by dual x ray absorptiometry and the subjects classified using BMI criteria for overweight and obesity. RESULTS: Significant gender differences in percentage body fat were seen, with girls having higher values from the age of 5 years. Girls had 3.8% higher percentage body fat at 5 years of age increasing to 12.9% at 18 years of age. Significant ethnic differences were found, with South Asian girls and boys having the highest percentage body fat from 5 and 7 years of age, respectively. These differences increased with age, being most significant in the teenage years. Although South Asian girls and boys were over-represented in the group containing children with more than 25% body fat (p<0.0001, chi2 test), African-Caribbean subjects were more likely to be classified as obese using BMI criteria. CONCLUSIONS: There are clear gender and ethnic differences in percentage body fat in British schoolchildren which may relate to known differences in the risk of type 2 diabetes in adolescence and adulthood. BMI criteria for defining overweight and obesity do not accurately identify ethnic differences in body fat. Published 26 September 2007 in Arch Dis Child, 92(10): 872-5.
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