• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.1037-1044
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• 1996

This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of childhood obesity and to figure out the correlation between percentage of body fat and various criteria used for evaluating childhood obesity, and to suggest a new convenient criterion applicable to obesity assessment for large population. subject of 309(male: 153, female: 156) from Uisung elementary school in Kyungbuk, in the age range from 10 to 12 were recruited. The prevalence of obese was evaluated by the methods of Slaughter skinfold equations for children, BMI, and RI. fourteen(4.5%) by Slaughter eq, 39(12.6%) by BMI, 31 (10%) by RI were found to be obese. The results indicate that the evaluation of child obesity is influenced by the methods applied; that is, BMI and RI tend to overpredict the obese while percentage of body fat tend to underestimate. Percentage of body fat by Slaughter equations using triceps and calf skinfold is highly correlated with triceps plus subscapular skinfold thickness(male: r=0.91, female: r=0.88) and with Kim equations for Korean children(male: r=0.93, femlae: r=0.88). The results suggest that, if necessary, practitioners can adequately predict body composition without exposing the upper torso of females.