Body composition estimates in adult Down syndrome individuals

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to determine the general level of agreement between the body mass index (BMI), adiposity estimates, waist circumference (WC) assessments, and percentage body fat (BF) measurements by bioelectrical-impedance spectroscopy (BIS) analyses in 20 adult males with Down syndrome (33.5 ± 6.5 years old). BIS was selected as a criterion measure after comparing its estimates with those of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) performed on 10 participants. There were no significant differences between %BF reported by BIS and DXA (p = 0.339) and both measures were moderately correlated (r = 0.71, p = 0.0019). Additionally, %BF estimated by BMI calculations and that obtained by BIS assessments were not significantly different (22.7 ± 4.9% e 23.3 ± 4.6%; t[19] = 0.819, p = 0.219, respectively). Both the BMI and WC were significantly correlated with %BF determined by BIS (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, BMI was significantly associated with %BF measured by BIS (χ2 = 9.7; p = 0.002). As for BMI, WC measurements were significantly associated with %BF obtained by BIS (χ2 = 8.9; p = 0.003). Thus, our main finding is that, both the BMI and WC provide good estimates of body fatness levels in adult males with Down syndrome.