Obesity and anthropometry in spina bifida: What is the best measure.

Objective: Diagnosis of obesity using traditional body mass index (BMI) using length may not be a reliable indicator of body composition in spina bifida (SB). We examine traditional and surrogate measures of adiposity in adults with SB, correlated with activity, metabolic disease, attitudes towards exercise and quality of life.

Design: Adult subjects with SB underwent obesity classification using BMI by length and arm span, abdominal girth and percent trunk fat (TF) on dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).