著者

小宮 秀一

出版者

九州大学

雑誌

健康科学 (ISSN:03877175)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.26, pp.1-7, 2004-03-25

被引用文献数

1

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Over the last two decades, a dramatic increase in overweight and obesity has been reported in both developed and under-developed countries. Associated with this excess of body mass and body fat is the increased risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. Childhood obesity is rapidly emerging as a global epidemic that will have profound public health consequences as obese children become obese adults. However, there is no internationally acceptable index to assess childhood obesity. Furthermore, attention has focused primarily on the methods by which body composition data are obtained, and less on the way in which the data is expressed. The advantage of using body mass index (BMI) is that stature and body mass are variables readily available and easy to measure. However, the major shortcoming of the BMI is that the actual composition of body mass is not taken into account: excess body mass may be made up of either adipose tissue or muscle hypertrophy, both of which will be judged as 'excess mass'. To resolve these issues, BMI can be separated into its fat-free and fat components. These two indices, known as the fat-free mass index (FFMI; FFMkg/m^2) and fat mass index (FMI; FMkg/m^2) are both discrete and adjusted for stature. The potential advantage is that only one component of body mass, i. e., fat-free mass (FFM) or fat mass (FM), is related to the stature squared. Considering that BMI is the sum of FFMI+FMI, an increase (or a decrease) in BMI can be traced to a rise (or a drop) in one or the other component, or both. FFMI and FMI used in conjunction with a percentile grid derived from a suitable reference population can be expected to provide more meaningful information about nutritional status than BMI alone can offer. The purpose of this article was to introduce these indices, by which leanness and obesity in children can be more accurately assessed.