• DOI:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6300(200001/02)12:1<25::AID-AJHB4>3.0.CO;2-9
• Corpus ID: 36893695

Sensitivity and specificity of the body mass index to assess low percent body fat in African women

@article{Gartner2000SensitivityAS,
  title={Sensitivity and specificity of the body mass index to assess low percent body fat in African women},
  author={Agn{\`e}s Gartner and Bernard Maire and Pierre Traissac and Jean-Pierre Massamba and Yves Kameli and Vincent Keraudren and Francis Delpeuch},
  journal={American Journal of Human Biology},
  year={2000},
  volume={12}
}

• A. Gartner, B. Maire, +4 authors F. Delpeuch
• Published 2000
• Medicine
• American Journal of Human Biology

The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of the body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) to reflect low percent body fat (%BF) in a population with a rather mild but widespread prevalence of low BMI. A sample of 586 women was studied in the Plateau Koukouya, a rural area of the Republic of Congo, Central Africa. Percent BF was estimated from bioelectrical impedance (BIA). BIA parameters were assumed to reflect lean body mass. The correlation between %BF and BMI was high (r = 0.84; P < 0.001). Low %BF or low BIA parameters were defined as the first quartile of the distribution. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of BMI <18.5, an accepted international cutoff for thinness, in relation to %BF was 58.5%, 93.6%, 75.4%, and 87.1%, respectively. A continuous sensitivity/specificity analysis (receiver operator characteristic [ROC] curves) for characterizing low %BF or low BIA parameters was done for a large range of BMI values. ROC curve analysis for %BF suggested that an acceptable trade‐off between sensitivity (89.8%) and specificity (77.9%) occurred at a BMI of 19.7 kg/m2. However, the positive predictive value was low (57.6%). For the prediction of low BIA parameters, results were similar, showing moderate sensitivity and high specificity for BMI <18.5, a cutoff point of BMI = 19.6, and low positive predictive values (<48%). The data suggest that BMI was not a good predictor of low %BF. This is consistent with the assumption of a decrease in both fat and fat free body mass in cases of low BMI. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 12:25–31, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.