Differences in air displacement plethysmography, bioelectrical impedance analysis and dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry for estimating body composition in Chinese children and adolescents

Abstract

AimThis study aimed to compare body composition (BC) measurements obtained by three widely used BC measuring methods, air displacement plethysmography (ADP), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA), in Chinese children and adolescents by sex and different BMI categories.MethodsWe used three BC measuring methods to evaluate healthy Chinese children and adolescents aged 5–17 years with BMI categories ranging from underweight to obese. Fat mass (FM, kg), fat mass percentage (FMP, %), fat‐free mass (FFM, kg) and appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM, kg) were measured by DXA, BIA and ADP on the same day within 1 h.ResultsA total of 172 Chinese children and adolescents were included in this study. The agreements for FM, FFM and ASM estimated by the three methods were excellent or good at the population level (intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.850, P < 0.05). However, ADP or BIA estimated lower body fat content and higher FFM than DXA (P < 0.001 for all). Moreover, the precise estimates significantly varied across BMI categories. In addition, the limit of agreements was wide, and the differences might not be clinically acceptable at the individual level.ConclusionsBody fat and FFM obtained by the three commonly used methods were highly correlated, but systematically different and influenced by BMI. This study provided a basis for mutual reference of measurements between three widely used methods.