Development of bioelectrical impedance-based equations for the prediction of body composition of Malawian adolescents aged 10-18 years: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: The accuracy of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) depends on population-specific prediction equations and there is no population-specific equation for predicting fat-free mass (FFM) in Malawian adolescents. This study aimed at determining the agreement between FFM measured by deuterium oxide dilution technique (the reference) and FFM by BIA; and propose BIA-based prediction equations to estimate FFM for Malawian adolescents.

Design: This was a cross-sectional study.