Correlation Between Body Mass Index And Percent Body Fat Estimated By BioElectrical Impedance Analysis In Children Of Karachi

Abstract

Background: The current definition of obesity implies a rise in total body fat, which may only be evaluated through an examination of body composition. Body Mass Index (BMI) cannot detect percent body fat (BF%) effectively, prompting the need for novel, simple, affordable, and resource-constrained methods of body fat assessment and measurement. Objective: To determine the correlation of BMI and BF% estimated by BIA in children of Karachi Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in a school located in Karachi. The study was conducted from January to April 2023. The permission to conduct this study was taken from the National Institute of Child Health and School Administration. Healthy children of age 6-15 years of either gender were enrolled in this study. Results: Total 132 children were studied with a mean age of 10.8 ± 2.5 years. The age range was 6-15 years. There was almost equal representation of both gender with 50.8% males and 49.2% females. Median weight, height, BMI, and BF% of study subjects were 30.5 (IQR=23.4-42.4) Kg, 139.5 (IQR=128-153) cm, 15.4 (IQR=13.8-17.6) Kg/m2 and 10.2 (IQR=6.1-16.7) % respectively. A significant strong positive correlation was seen for overall data (rs=0.645, p<0.001). Out of 132 observations, concordance between BMI and BF% was seen in 46.2% of observations yielding a weighted agreement of 0.2961 which was significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: This study analyzed that there was a strong positive correlation between the two body measures. However, the classification in terms of BMI and BF% ranges showed a difference for the same individual with slight agreement. The finding for the Pakistani population should be validated in a larger study.

Keywords

• body mass index
• body fat
• body composition
• correlation
• agreement