CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 694Body Composition Measurement TechniquesObesity, Physical Activity, DietDiabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and Lipoproteins

The effect of sex, age and race on estimating percentage body fat from body mass index: The Heritage Family Study

Jackson, AS, Stanforth, PR, Gagnon, J, Rankinen, T, Leon, AS, Rao, DC, Skinner, JS, Bouchard, C +1 more·2002·International Journal of Obesity
DOI 10.1038/sj.ijo.0802006
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Objective To study the effects of sex, age and race on the relation between body mass index (BMI) and measured percent body fat (%fat). Design Cross-sectional validation study of sedentary individuals. Subjects The Heritage Family Study cohort of 665 black and white men and women who ranged in age from 17 to 65 y. Measurements Body density determined from hydrostatic weighing. Percentage body fat determined with gender and race-specific, two-compartment models. BMI determined from height and weight, and sex and race in dummy coded form. Results Polynomial regression showed that the relationship between %fat and BMI was quadratic for both men and women. A natural log transformation of BMI adjusted for the non-linearity. Test for homogeneity of log transformed BMI and gender showed that the male-female slopes were within random variance, but the intercepts differed. For the same BMI, the %fat of females was 10.4% higher than that of males. General linear models analysis of the women's data showed that age, race and race-by-BMI interaction were independently related to %fat. The same analysis applied to the men's data showed that %fat was not just a function of BMI, but also age and age-by-BMI interaction. Multiple regression analyses provided models that defined the bias. Conclusions These data and results published in the literature show that BMI and %fat relationship are not independent of age and gender. These data showed a race effect for women, but not men. The failure to adjust for these sources of bias resulted in substantial differences in the proportion of subjects defined as obese by measured %fat.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/sj.ijo.0802006

Cites

3 of 3 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Adipose tissue is a highly sexually dimorphic tissue, patterning men and women in different ways, and the risks associated with obesity are also sexually dimorphic.

    “Adipose tissue is also a highly sexually dimorphic tissue, patterning men and women in different ways, which means the risks associated with obesity are also sexually dimorphic.”

    From Developmental programming of offspring adipose tissue biology and obesity risk (2021) · cites this paper as [47]

  • The average human male body is comprised of 14% fat whereas the female body is comprised of 27% fat.

    “The average human male body is comprised of 14% fat whereas the female body is comprised of 27% fat [47].”

    From Developmental programming of offspring adipose tissue biology and obesity risk (2021) · cites this paper as [47]

  • For the same BMI, females have a higher percent of fat than males, and for similar fat-free body mass, Black women had significantly more percent of fat and a higher body weight than White women.

    “For example, for the same BMI, females have a higher percent of fat than males, and for similar fat-free body mass, Black women had significantly more percent of fat and, hence, a higher body weight than White women [54].”

    From Advantages and Limitations of the Body Mass Index (BMI) to Assess Adult Obesity (2024) · cites this paper as [54]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Jackson, A., Stanforth, P., Gagnon, J., Rankinen, T., Leon, A., Rao, D., Skinner, J., Bouchard, C., & Wilmore, J.
Affiliations
  • Texas A&M University (US)
  • Université Laval (CA)
  • Pennington Biomedical Research Center (US)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
Corresponding author
Jackson, AS
ORCID
Venue
International Journal of Obesity
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2002-05-30
Volume
26
Issue
6
Pages
789-796
ISSN
  • 0307-0565 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-5497
DOI
10.1038/sj.ijo.0802006
OpenAlex
W155371748
Cited by
694
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 51 · 2022: 53 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 44 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 32 · 2012: 31
FWCI
3.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • International Journal of Obesity (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Washington
  • School of Medicine, Indiana University
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL047327, HL 47321, HL 45670, HL47323, R01HL047317, HL 47327, R01HL047323, HL47317, R01HL045670, R01HL047321)
  • National Center for Research Resources (M01RR000400)
  • NIH Clinical Center
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Body Composition Measurement Techniques
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and Lipoproteins
Keywords
body mass index, body fat percentage, body density, hydrostatic weighing, sex differences, age effects, racial differences, obesity misclassification, two-compartment model, sedentary adults, HERITAGE Family Study
MeSH terms
Adipose Tissue, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aging, Body Composition, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Mathematics, Middle Aged, Regression Analysis, Sex Characteristics, Body Mass Index, Black People, White People, Racial Groups

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review