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Comparative Study
. 2013:2013:790654.
doi: 10.1155/2013/790654. Epub 2013 Apr 8.

Body fat and body-mass index among a multiethnic sample of college-age men and women

Catherine L Carpenter  1 , Eric Yan, Steve Chen, Kurt Hong, Adam Arechiga, Woo S Kim, Max Deng, Zhaoping Li, David Heber
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Body fat and body-mass index among a multiethnic sample of college-age men and women

Catherine L Carpenter et al. J Obes. 2013.

Abstract

Obesity prevalence and average body composition vary by US race and gender. Asian Americans have the lowest prevalence of obesity. Relying on body-mass index (BMI) to estimate obesity prevalence may misclassify subgroups that appear normally weighted but have excess body fat. We evaluated percentage body fat (PBF) and BMI to determine whether BMI reflects PBF consistently across different races. 940 college students were recruited from a local public university over four consecutive years. We measured PBF by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), weight by physicians' scales, and height with stadiometers. Our sample comprised Asians (49%), Caucasians (23%), Hispanics (7%), and Other (21%). Participants averaged 21.4 years old; BMI was 22.9 kg/m(2); PBF was 24.8%. BMI and PBF varied significantly by race and gender (P value = 0.002 and 0.005 for men; 0.0009 and 0.0008 for women). Asian-American women had the lowest BMI (21.5 kg/m(2)) but the second highest PBF (27.8%). Linear association between BMI and PBF was the weakest (r (2) = 0.09) among Asian-American women and BMI had the poorest sensitivity (37%) to detect PBF. The high PBF with low BMI pattern exhibited by Asian-American women suggests that they could escape detection for obesity-related disease if BMI is the sole measure that estimates body composition.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of body-mass index and percentage body fat for males according to race/ethnicity.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of body-mass index and percentage body fat for females according to race/ethnicity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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