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Timing, velocity, and magnitude of pubertal changes in body composition: a longitudinal study

  • Clinical Research Article
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Abstract

Background

Pubertal changes in body composition significantly influence future health, with links to various diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the weight changes, fat-free mass (FFM), and body fat mass (BFM) during pubertal growth in Korean children and adolescents.

Methods

We utilized mixed longitudinal data, employing bioelectrical impedance analysis for 4641 height measurements (2204 boys, 2437 girls) from 361 individuals (170 boys, 191 girls) aged 7–18 years. Utilizing the Superimposition by Translation and Rotation (SITAR) model, a shape-invariant growth curve model, reference curves for height, weight, and body composition change velocities were estimated.

Results

Korean boys experience peak weight velocity (PWV) at an average age of 12.41 years, with a rate of 8.19 kg/year, peak fat-free mass velocity (PFFV) at 12.70 years (7.60 kg/year), and peak body fat mass velocity (PBFV) at 9.69 years (2.67 kg/year). Korean girls show PWV at 11.28 years (6.33 kg/year), PFFV at 11.13 years (4.86 kg/year), and PBFV at 12.33 years (2.72 kg/year). Positive correlations exist among the ages of peak height velocity, PWV, PFFV, and PBFV.

Conclusions

This research represents the groundbreaking application of the SITAR model in analyzing changes in body composition during pubertal growth in Korean children and adolescents.

Impact

  • This study utilized the SITAR model to analyze longitudinal changes in the body composition of the general pediatric population in Korea across pre- and post-pubertal stages, addressing overlooked aspects in cross-sectional studies.

  • Examining growth parameters, including size (mean mass), tempo (timing), and velocity (compression and expansion) for each body component, revealed positive correlations among ages at peak velocities for various body composition parameters.

  • This study can be employed for further investigations that compare the tempo, size, and velocity of various body composition parameters in pediatric disease cohorts and the general population.

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Fig. 1: Growth curve of height, weight, FFM, and BFM with age by sex from the mean curves modeled using SITAR.
Fig. 2: Boxplots for APVs and PVs for height, weight, FFM, and BFM by sex-specific SITAR modeling.
Fig. 3: Mean differences in growth parameters (variables on y-axis subtitles) between samples in the top and bottom 20% (based on variables in subtitles).

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from The Global Prediction Co., Ltd. but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of The Global Prediction Co., Ltd.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Enago for their English editing services.

Funding

This research was supported by “Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS)” through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 2024 (2022RIS-005).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Dohyun Chun, Seo Jung Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business Administration, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, Korea

    Dohyun Chun

  2. The Global Prediction Co., Ltd., Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

    Dohyun Chun & Jihun Kim

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Severance Children’s Hospital, Endocrine Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Seo Jung Kim & Junghwan Suh

  4. College of Humanities & Social Sciences Convergence, Yonsei University, Wonju, Gangwon-do, Korea

    Jihun Kim

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Contributions

Dohyun Chun: acquisition of data, analysis, drafting the article, final approval of article. Seo Jung Kim: drafting the article, revising it critically for important intellectual content, final approval of article. Junghwan Suh: conception, design, interpretation of data, final approval of article. Jihun Kim: conception, design, interpretation of data, final approval of article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Junghwan Suh or Jihun Kim.

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Competing interests

D.C. and J.K. are employees and holding stocks of Global Prediction Co., Ltd. S.J.K. and J.S. declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Yonsei Medical University, and the need for informed consent was waived because this was a de-identified retrospective study (IRB No. 4-2023-1312).

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Chun, D., Kim, S.J., Suh, J. et al. Timing, velocity, and magnitude of pubertal changes in body composition: a longitudinal study. Pediatr Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-024-03299-w

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