ArticleCureus2024
Assessing the Body Composition of "Picky Eaters" Using Body Impedance Analysis: An Experience From a Tertiary Care Center.
Article in Cureus, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Family Anthropometric and Physiological Correlations With Parent- and Teacher-Rated Preschooler Socio-Behavioral Health.Journal of child and adolescent psychiatric nursing : official publication of the Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nurses, Inc · 2026Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPicky eating might be associated with a higher risk of being underweight and poor growth. This study aimed to investigate if picky eaters aged between three and 12 years showed differences in height, weight, and body composition compared to their non-picky peers using a body impedance analysis (BIA).
methodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted between March 1, 2022, and July 31, 2022, on children aged three to 12 years who presented to the outpatient pediatric clinics at Al Habib Ar Rayyan in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Body composition was measured using BIA after manually inserting the height, gender, and age into the machine, where body mass index (BMI), fat mass, and skeletal muscle mass were recorded. Participants were classified as under/normal/over for each body composition measurement.
resultsA total of 2234 children were entered into the final data analysis. Our analysis showed that 1917 (85.8%) were Saudis and 1117 (50%) were males. The mean age of participants was 6.08±2.01 years and 1151 (51.5%) were in the pre-school age. The reported prevalence of picky eaters was 1684 (75.4%), of whom, 606 (27.0%) were selective eaters, 365 (16.2%) were low appetite eaters, and 723 (32.2%) were both selective and low appetite eaters. Being underweight was significantly more common among the picky eaters 487 (28.9%) compared to those non-picky eaters 55 (10.0%) (p<0.001). Significantly, 1280 (76%) picky eaters had below-average skeletal muscle mass compared to 151 non-picky eaters (27.5%) (p<0.001). The low appetite picky eater group had more under skeletal muscle mass children 277 (75.9%) compared to the selective picky eater group 412 (68.0%) (p=0.009). Additionally, the low appetite group possessed lower muscle ratios (p=0.012) and were more underweight than the selective group (p<0.001). Furthermore, the low appetite group showed a higher percentage of children below the 3rd percentile in the height for age category (p=0.003) compared to the selective group.
conclusionThis study is the first of its kind in Saudi and globally to evaluate body composition using BIA among children. The study showed that picky eating is more associated with underweight children and low muscular mass. Despite the normal BMI, height, and weight of a picky eater, their skeletal muscle mass might be less than average, which could be associated with an increased risk of morbidity.
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