Interrelationships between BMI, skinfold thicknesses, percent body fat, and cardiovascular disease risk factors among U.S. children and adolescents

Table 1 Descriptive Characteristics of the Sample ^a

Characteristic	Boys (n = 4493)	Girls (n = 3106)
Race/Ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	61 %	62 %
Non-Hispanic Black	15 %	15 %
Mexican-American	11 %	11 %
Other	7 %	7 %
Age (y)	13.9 ± 0.1	13.9 ± 0.1
BMI (kg/m²)	21.8 ± 0.1	22.2 ± 0.2
BMI-for-age (z-score) ^b	0.46 ± 0.03	0.51 ± 0.04
Obese (%) ^c	18 ± 1	17 ± 1
Extreme Obesity (%) ^c	6 ± 1	6 ± 1
Subscapular skinfold thickness (mm)	9.1 ± 0.2	12.8 ± 0.3
Triceps skinfold thickness (mm)	11.2 ± 0.2	17.4 ± 0.3
Skinfold thickness sum (mm)	20.2 ± 0.5	30.8 ± 0.6
Slaughter estimated body fat (%)	21.1 ± 0.3	27.4 ± 0.3
DXA calculated body fat (%)	25.4 ± 0.2	33.3 ± 0.3

^aValues represent prevalences or means (± SE). Because the skinfold thickness measures were skewed, values for these 3 variables represent estimates of the medians and their SEs
^bZ-score (standard deviation score) of children relative to the 2000 CDC growth charts
^cObesity is defined as a BMI-for-age ≥ 95th percentile of the CDC reference population or a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m². Extreme obesity is defined as a BMI-for-age ≥ 120 % of the 95th percentile [26]

ISSN: 1471-2431