Abstract

MARIN-ARIAS, Lilliam; ZAMORA SALAS, Juan Diego  and  LACLE MURRAY, Adriana. Relación entre indicadores antropométricos y masa grasa medida por deuterio en escolares costarricenses. Acta bioquím. clín. latinoam. [online]. 2019, vol.53, n.3, pp.307-314. ISSN 0325-2957.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between fat mass (FM) expressed as body fat percentage (%BF) measured by the deuterium method (D2O) and anthropometric indicators in Costa Rican schoolchildren. A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed and the participants were 54 boys and 49 girls of ages between six and nine years old. The anthropometric measurements recorded were weight, height, body mass index (BMI), arm circumference (AC), waist circumference (WC), abdominal circumference (AC), subscapular skinfold (SSF), and tricipital skinfold (TSF). The analysis of %BF was performed by means of D2O reference method. Descriptive statistics and the application of Pearson correlation coefficient analysis identified the relationship between anthropometric measurements and %BF obtained by D2O. From the group of schoolchildren, the girls showed greater values for height and tricipital skinfold (p<0.05) and %BF obtained by D2O (p<0.001). This study evidences a strong correlation between %BF measured by D2O and BMI, WC and AC in both girls and boys. It is concluded that WC and AC could be used together with the IMC as tools for the diagnosis of overweight and obesity in schoolchildren, when there are no more precise methodologies that determine the %BF.

Keywords : Deuterium; Schoolchildren; Anthropometric indicators; Body fat percentage; Obesity; Costa Rica.

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