University of Virginia Health System

Assessing Body Fat Stores

Monitoring nutritional state is a vital component of the clinical care of children with CP. Unfortunately, assessment of nutritional state is hampered due to difficulties in obtaining an accurate measure of stature and the unclear interpretation of weight for height in children who often have altered bone density and muscle mass. If available to the clinician, the best tool for assessing nutritional status may be the skinfold caliper.

Children with CP and chronic malnutrition experience a preferential depletion of their periperal fat stores and attempt to maintain central fat stores. Thus, tricepts skinfold thickness may reflect the malnourished state more rapidly than the subscapular skinfold thickness. Overall, assessment of the child's fat stores might be done utilizing:

• Slaughter equations which combine the triceps and subscapular skinfold to estimate total body fat stores. These equations have been validated in children with CP ages 2 -12. The result can be compared to the nomogram (ages 6 -17) or to mean percent body fat levels for age from published tables.

  or by

• Summing the triceps and subscapular skinfold and utilizing the nomogram for children ages 6 - 17.