A novel cut-off for abdominal obesity derived from various anthropometric indices to predict body composition:arm fat area

Aim: Determination of fat and fat-free mass is of considerable interest in evaluation of nutritional status. The aim of the present study was to determine whether using arm fat area (AFA) is helpful in identifying abdominal obesity (waist circumference 90thpercentile) in Turkish children and adolescents with high risk. According to AFA = 85th percentile indicating overweight, we determined age- and gender-specific cut-offs from anthropometric indices.Materials and methods: This study was conducted with 5358 (2621 boys, 2737 girls) children and adolescents aged 6-17 years. Height, weight, arm span, waist circumference (WC), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), and triceps skinfold thickness (TSF) were measured. BMI, fat percentage, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), waist-to-arm span ratio(WASR), and arm fat area (AFA) were calculated. Results: According to AFA, overweight prevalence was 14.9% for the entire group. According to ROC analysis, the best predictors to explain overweight were BMI, WC, WHtR, and WASR for 6.0- to 10.9- and 11.0- to 13.9-year-old boys; BMIfor 6.0- to 10.9-year-old girls; weight, BMI, and WC for 11.0- to 13.9-year-old girls. While weight, BMI, WC, and WHtR were the best predictors of being overweight for 14.0- to 17.9-year-old boys; they were BMI, WC, and weight for the girlsin the same age range. According to WC 90th percentile; for 6.0- to 10.9-years, 11.0- to 13.9-years, and 14.0- to 17.9-years the AUCs of AFA for boys were 0.84, 0.90, and 0.88; and for girls those values were 0.81, 0.87, and 0.88.