Assessment of the BioMeasure Youth Device
for Evaluating Height, Weight and Body Mass Index in Children Attending
a Busy Outpatient Clinic
Simona Korff PhD, Tammi Jones, B Li, MD and Timothy Sentongo, MD
Div GI, Hepatology & Nutrition, Northwestern University, Children’s
Memorial Hospital, Chicago IL
Background
The BioMeasureYouth Device ‘BYD’ (Glenview
Health Systems, IL) is a novel
anthropometric assessment tool consisting of an ‘all in one’ electronic
stand-on digital scale and
ultrasonic beam that measures weight and height within seconds then
rapidly calculates the body mass
index (BMI, kg/m2). The potential benefits are rapidity of completing
nutritional assessments in busy
pediatric settings with incorporation of BMI for overweight and obesity
surveillance.
Objective
To evaluate the ‘coefficient of reliability’ (R),
which represents the degree to which
a measurement is free of error and ‘technical error of measurement’ (TEM),
which estimates the
replicability of measurements of height, weight and BMI using the BYD
in children attending a
busy outpatient tertiary care clinic.
Methods
All subjects underwent
duplicate weight, height and BMI assessments using the
BYD. The ‘TEM’ and ‘R’ values for height (cm)
weight (kg) and BMI measurements were
calculated. Since stature is scaled during mathematical derivation
of a BMI, the variation of
TEM with height and age was also examined. The normal TEM for height
measurements is
≤0.69 cm based on the accepted standards for intra-observer anthropometric
assessments.
Results
Ninety-one children (39 female) aged (mean ± SD)
10±4
yr enrolled. The ‘R’ value for
weight, height and BMI measurements was 0.99, indicating that 99% of
the reported values were
free of error. The TEM for weight was 0.15 indicating weight measurements
were reproducible
to within 150 g. The TEM for height was 1.0 cm in shorter children
(<128
cm: ~5th percentile for
males and females aged 9-y) and 0.6 cm in children taller than 148
cm (~5th percentile for males
and females aged 13-y). Likewise older children aged ≥11-y (N =
44) had a normal TEM for
height (0.56 cm) compared to 1.1 cm in the children aged 3 to 10-y
(N = 47). The TEM for BMI
measurements was 0.32 kg/m2 thereby suggesting the variance in height
assessments only
minimally affected BMI.
Conclusion
The current model BYD provided
rapid assessments of weight and height as well as
adequate screening of BMI status in children attending a busy outpatient
clinic. Accuracy of the
measurements was best in older and/or taller children. These findings
provide the basis for an
upgraded BYD with even greater precision in all children regardless
of age or stature.
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