Comparative study of mid-upper arm circumference, arm muscle area and arm fat area percentiles in Argentinean and US children aged 4-14 years

OYHENART EE; CASTRO LE; GARRAZA M; CESANI MF; TORRES MF; QUINTERO FA; DAHINTEN S; ALFARO E; BEJARANO I; CARRILLO R; LOMAGLIO D; MARRODÁN MD; MENECIER N; NAVAZO B; ROMÀN ESTELA; ZONTA M L; DIP NB

NUTRICIóN HOSPITALARIA

AULA MEDICA EDICIONES

Año: 2019 vol. 36 p. 552 - 562

0212-1611

Background: mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), subcutaneous fat and muscle measurements are an alternative method to diagnoseoverweight and evaluate growth as well as protein and energy reserves.Aim: to compare MUAC, arm muscle area (AMA) and arm fat area (AFA) measurements of Argentinean boys and girls (Sa) with reference curvesfor US boys and girls (R).Subjects and methods: data from 22,736 school-children aged 4-14 years from six Argentinean provinces were collected. MUAC and tricepsskinfold thickness were measured and the derived AMA and AFA measures were calculated. Analyses were performed with GAMLSS using theR software. Differences in mean values of Sa and R were compared in percentiles 3, 50 and 97.Results: mean values of MUAC and AMA in boys and girls were higher in R than in Sa at all ages; conversely, AFA values were lower.Conclusions: our results confirm differences in upper arm anthropometry of Argentinean school-children with respect to the US reference. The higheradipose tissue and lower skeletal muscle mass observed in Argentinean children could be partly associated with the different ethnic origin of bothpopulations. However, differences should be interpreted in the context of an obesogenic environment, which has favored a calorie-protein imbalance