Percentile curves for peripheral and truncal skinfold thickness for Canadian children and youth
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Abstract
Background: Skinfold thickness (SFT) measurements are a reliable and feasible method for assessing body fat in children but their use and interpretation is hindered by the scarcity of reference values in representative populations of children. The objectives of the present study were to develop age- and sex-specific percentile curves for five SFT measures (biceps, triceps, subscapular, suprailiac, medial calf) and to describe body fat composition in a representative population of Canadian children and youth. Methods: We analyzed data from 3938 children and adolescents between 6 and 19 years of age who participated in the Canadian Health Measures Survey cycles 1 (2007/2009) and 2 (2009/2011). Standardized procedures were used to measure SFT. Age- and sex-specific centiles for skinfolds and body fat were calculated using the GAMLSS method. Results: Percentile curves were materially different in absolute value and shape for boys and girls. Percentile girls in girls steadily increased with age whereas percentile curves in boys were characterized by a pubertal centered peak. Median body fat percentage at age 18 was 13.2 and 25.4% among boys and girls, respectively. Conclusions: The current study has presented for the first time percentile curves for five SFT measures and body fat in a representative sample of Canadian children and youth.
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2016. Percentile curves for peripheral and truncal skinfold thickness for Canadian children and youth. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2053v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2053v1note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
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This is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints.
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Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Stefan Kuhle conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Jillian Ashley-Martin conceived and designed the experiments, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Bryan Maguire conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
David C Hamilton conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed the data, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Human Ethics
The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
All processes used for cycles 1 and 2 of the CHMS were reviewed and approved by the Health Canada Research Ethics Board to ensure that internationally recognized ethical standards for human research were met and maintained. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants aged 14 years and older; parents or guardians gave consent on behalf of children aged 6 to 13 years, while the child provided his or her assent to participate. The current project was approved by the IWK Health Centre Research Ethics Board, Halifax, NS, Canada (File # 1014413).
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
Data are only available through the Statistics Canada Research Data Centres for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data.
Application process is at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/rdc/process.
Researchers submit an application form and project proposal to the Statistics Canada Research Data Centres Program. Upon approval they have to undergo a security check. Once completed they get access to one of the Research Data Centres in Canada to analyze the data. All output produced at the centres must be vetted by a Statistics Canada analyst before it is released to the researcher for publication.
Funding
This work was supported by an IWK Health Centre (http://www.iwk.nshealth.ca) Establishment Grant awarded to Dr. Stefan Kuhle (#09020) and an IWK Health Centre Research Associate Award awarded to Dr. Jillian Ashley-Martin (#18396). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
