Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Dietary Prevention of Obesity-related Disease Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #90141

Title: THE US NATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONS OF BODY FATNESS

Author
item GUO, S - WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY
item CHUMLEA, W - WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY
item HEYMSFIELD, S - ST. LUKES/ROOSEVELT CTR
item Lukaski, Henry
item SCHOELLER, D - UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
item SIERVOGEL, R - WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY
item FRIEDL, K - US ARMY
item KUCZMARSKI, R - US HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICE
item HUBBARD, V - NATL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH

Submitted to: International Congress on Obesity
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/29/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: This study provides age-, sex-, and race-specific national distributions of levels of body composition in the US white and black populations using data of 2879 white men, 3020 white women, 2314 black men, and 2579 black women from NHANES III. The national distributions include age-, sex-, race-specific means and standard deviations, and percentiles at 3rd, 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 85th, 95th, and 97th levels. NHANES III is a nationally representative survey of the US population conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics form 1988-1994. Prediction equations for FFM were developed with excellent precision using five large independent sets of BIA and body composition data (647 white men, 923 white women, 114 black men, and 158 black women). These equations were applied to NHANES III BIA data to estimate FFM. Values for TBF and %BF were computed from the estimated FFM for each participant. To construct the age-, sex-, and race-specific US national distribution of body composition, NHANES III participants were separated into 21 age groups, i.e, 2-year intervals from 12 to 20 yr, 3-year intervals from 20 to 35 yr, 5-years intervals from 35 to 85 yr. National distributions of levels of body composition were computed with the sampling weight applied to each individual to account for individual selection probabilities and to adjust for non-response, non-coverage, and post-stratification that result from the complex sampling design of NHANES surveys. The findings indicated (1) an age-related increasing trend in levels of TBF and %BF from 12 to 65 yr and these values decreased thereafter, (2) levels of TBF and %BF were higher in Blacks then Whites after 18 yr, and (3) women had a higher TBF and %BF than men.