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The effect of sex, age and race on estimating percentage body fat from body mass index: The Heritage Family Study

International Journal of Obesity volume 26, pages 789–796 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective: To study the effects of sex, age and race on the relation between body mass index (BMI) and measured percent body fat (%fat).

Design: Cross-sectional validation study of sedentary individuals.

Subjects: The Heritage Family Study cohort of 665 black and white men and women who ranged in age from 17 to 65 y.

Measurements: Body density determined from hydrostatic weighing. Percentage body fat determined with gender and race-specific, two-compartment models. BMI determined from height and weight, and sex and race in dummy coded form.

Results: Polynomial regression showed that the relationship between %fat and BMI was quadratic for both men and women. A natural log transformation of BMI adjusted for the non-linearity. Test for homogeneity of log transformed BMI and gender showed that the male–female slopes were within random variance, but the intercepts differed. For the same BMI, the %fat of females was 10.4% higher than that of males. General linear models analysis of the women's data showed that age, race and race-by-BMI interaction were independently related to %fat. The same analysis applied to the men's data showed that %fat was not just a function of BMI, but also age and age-by-BMI interaction. Multiple regression analyses provided models that defined the bias.

Conclusions: These data and results published in the literature show that BMI and %fat relationship are not independent of age and gender. These data showed a race effect for women, but not men. The failure to adjust for these sources of bias resulted in substantial differences in the proportion of subjects defined as obese by measured %fat.

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Acknowledgements

The Heritage Family Study is supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute through the following grants: HL45670 (C Bouchard, PI); HL47323 (AS Leon, PI); HL47317 (DC Rao, PI); HL47327 (JS Skinner, PI); and HL47321 (JH Wilmore, PI). Claude Bouchard is partially supported by the George A Bray Chair in Nutrition. Credit is also given to the University of Minnesota Clinical Research Center, NIH Grant MO1-RR000400. Further, Art Leon is partially supported by the Henry L Taylor Professorship in Exercise Science and Health Enhancement. Thanks are expressed to all of the co-principal investigators, investigators, co-investigators, local project coordinators, research assistants, laboratory technicians, and secretaries who have contributed to this study (see Bouchard et al10). Finally, the Heritage consortium is very thankful to those hard-working families whose participation has made these data possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    AS Jackson, PR Stanforth & JH Wilmore

  2. Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA

    AS Jackson

  3. Laboratory of Molecular Endocrinology, Laval University, Québec City, Québec, Canada

    J Gagnon

  4. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    T Rankinen & C Bouchard

  5. School of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    AS Leon

  6. Division of Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, USA

    DC Rao

  7. Department of Kinesiology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

    JS Skinner

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Correspondence to AS Jackson.

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Jackson, A., Stanforth, P., Gagnon, J. et al. The effect of sex, age and race on estimating percentage body fat from body mass index: The Heritage Family Study. Int J Obes 26, 789–796 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802006

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802006

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