Physical development and body composition parameters in 4-11-year-old children

Background
In this paper, we present the results of the study concerning body development and body composition parameters dependency.

Material and methods
The monitored sample consisted of 78 probands aged of 4 – 11 years: group I, 4 – 5 year-olds (13 probands) 5.17 ±0.52 years; group II, 6 – 7 year-olds (30 probands) 6.99 ±0.52 years; group III, 8 – 9 year-olds (25 probands) 8.8 ±0.52 years; group IV, 10 – 11 year-olds (10 probands) 10.92 ±0.53 years. To diagnose parameters of body composition the InBody 120 device was used.

Results
As for the parameters of body composition, a rising linear trend was recorded with increasing age. Statistically significant (p < 0.05) values were found between age groups in body height (p = 3.76E-24), body weight (p = 4.65E-16), quantity of fat mass (p = 0.0475), quantity of skeletal muscles (p = 1.31E-20), total quantity of water in body (p = 2.23E-20), quantity of proteins (p = 1.83E-20), quantity of minerals (p = 2.06E-19) and in the level of basal metabolism (p = 1.77E-20).

Conclusions
Our results of body height and body weight correspond to those obtained in national anthropometric measurements. BMI values respond to the developmental trends, but they differ in the achieved values of comparable age groups as our probands have achieved lower values than the Slovak population.