Table 1 Optimal power for height-standardisation (p) of childhood body weight, fat mass, fat-free mass and individual organ masses.

From: Has the BMI had its day?

  

Girls

  

Boys

 

x ± SD

ra

p

x ± SD

ra

p

Height, m

1.58 ± 0.15

 

-

1.62 ± 0.18

 

-

Weight, kg

60.2 ± 24.5

0.85**

3.59

62.2 ± 28.3

0.89**

4.24

FM, kg

19.9 ± 15.2

0.68**

6.00

15.8 ± 15.6

0.56**

5.00

FFM, kg

40.3 ± 11.4

0.93**

3.18

46.4 ± 16.9

0.96**

3.36

Brain, kg

1.42 ± 0.13

0.21*

0.16

1.56 ± 0.14

0.39*

0.39

Liver, kg

1.16 ± 0.37

0.81**

2.60

1.26 ± 0.44

0.86**

3.23

Heart, kg

0.23 ± 0.07

0.85**

2.72

0.27 ± 0.09

0.85**

3.18

Kidneys, kg

0.19 ± 0.06

0.78**

2.65

0.20 ± 0.07

0.85**

3.18

Spleen, kg

0.19 ± 0.09

0.71**

3.85

0.23 ± 0.13

0.77**

4.41

  1. Detailed body composition data were obtained in 221 girls and 200 boys, age range 6–18 years. Fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) were measured by Air Displacement Plethysmography, individual organ masses by whole body Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). For details of the study population and methods of body composition analysis see ref. [13, 14]. The optimal height scaling power to create an index of weight or FM or FFM or individual organ masses that are minimally correlated with height was developed as an index weight/heightp where p is equal to p = r x*(SD of log weight/SD of log height).
  2. ar is the correlation coefficient between log-transformed weight (or organ and tissue masses) and log transformed height (acc. to ref. [7, 8]).
  3. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.
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