Original Article

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2006) 60, 191–196. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602285; published online 19 October 2005

Anthropometric body fat composition reference values in Spanish adolescents. The AVENA Study

Guarantor: LA Moreno.

Contributor: LAM had a primary responsibility for study design, field work, data analysis and writing the manuscript. MIM, MG-G, CMG, JF, JW, and JRR, participated in the development of the protocol and analytic framework for the study, and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. AS, AM, and MB supervised the design and execution of the study and contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

L A Moreno1, M I Mesana1, M González-Gross2,3, C M Gil4, J Fleta1, J Wärnberg5,7, J R Ruiz3, A Sarría6, A Marcos5, M Bueno6 and and the AVENA Study Group8

  1. 1E.U. Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
  2. 2Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  3. 3Grupo EFFECTS-262, Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
  4. 4Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud y del Deporte, Universidad de Zaragoza, Huesca, Spain
  5. 5Grupo Inmunonutrición, Departamento de Nutrición y Metabolismo, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid, Spain
  6. 6Departamento de Pediatría, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
  7. 7Unit for Preventive Nutrition, Department of Biosciences at Novum, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden

Correspondence: Professor LA Moreno, Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Zaragoza, Domingo Miral s/n, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain. E-mail: lmoreno@unizar.es

8Members of AVENA Study Group are listed in the Appendix.

Received 4 April 2005; Revised 8 July 2005; Accepted 12 August 2005; Published online 19 October 2005.

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Abstract

Objective:

 

To determine reference values for body mass index (BMI), sum of six skinfolds (sum6 skinfolds) and body fat percentage (BF%) in Spanish adolescents aged 13–18 years, included in the AVENA Study (Alimentación y Valoración del Estado Nutricional en Adolescentes: Food and Assessment of the Nutritional Status of Adolescents).

Design:

 

Multicentre cross-sectional study.

Setting:

 

Representative sample of Spanish adolescents.

Subjects:

 

The population was selected by means of a multiplestep, simple random sampling. The final number of subjects included in the AVENA Study was 2859 adolescents; 2160 adolescents had a complete set of anthropometric measurements and were then included in this study (1109 males and 1051 females).

Interventions:

 

Weight, height and six skinfold thicknesses were measured. As indices of total adiposity, we calculated BMI, sum6 skinfolds and BF% with the formulas described by Slaughter et al.

Results:

 

sum6 skinfolds and BF% in each age group were significantly higher in females than in males. In males, age showed a significant effect for BMI, sum6 skinfolds and BF%; however, in females, the effect was only significant for BF%. The percentile distribution was more disperse towards higher sum6 skinfolds and BF% values in males when compared with females.

Conclusions:

 

The presented percentile values will help us to classify adolescents in comparison with a well-established reference population, and to estimate the proportion of adolescents with high or low adiposity amounts.

Sponsorship:

 

The AVENA-Study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS 00/0015), and grants from Panrico SA, Madaus SA and Procter and Gamble SA. This study was also supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain), RCESP (C03/09) and Spanish Ministry of Education (AP2003-2128).

Keywords:

body fat, obesity, adolescent, reference standards

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