Cross-sectional fat area at the forearm in children and adolescents

Abstract

Background: Cross-sectional fat area (FA) and muscle area have been recently used to describe local body composition at the forearm in children and adolescents. The present analysis intends to characterize FA in a normal collective.

Methods: FA was measured by peripheral quantitative computed tomography in a study collective (DONALD study) of 296 children and adolescents. FA was analyzed in relation to fat mass (FM) measured by 4 skinfold thicknesses.

Results: FA was significantly correlated with FM (r = 0.8). FA was positively associated with height in prepubertal individuals and pubertal females, but negatively associated with height in pubertal males. Median and range of FA are displayed for different height ranges and pubertal stages in males and females to enable analyses of FA in subgroups.

Conclusion: Because of the positive dependence of FA on height in prepubertal individuals and pubertal females, reference values of FA may be based on height. But reference values in pubertal males or in a mixed pubertal population should be rather based on pubertal stages than on height.