Body composition in young female eating-disorder patients with severe weight loss and controls: evidence from the four-component model and evaluation of DXA

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Whether fat-free mass (FFM) and its components are depleted in eating-disorder (ED) patients is uncertain. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is widely used to assess body composition in pediatric ED patients; however, its accuracy in underweight populations remains unknown. We aimed (1) to assess body composition of young females with ED involving substantial weight loss, relative to healthy controls using the four-component (4C) model, and (2) to explore the validity of DXA body composition assessment in ED patients. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Body composition of 13 females with ED and 117 controls, aged 10–18 years, was investigated using the 4C model. Accuracy of DXA for estimation of FFM and fat mass (FM) was tested using the approach of Bland and Altman. RESULTS: Adjusting for age, height and pubertal stage, ED patients had significantly lower whole-body FM, FFM, protein mass (PM) and mineral mass (MM) compared with controls. Trunk and limb FM and limb lean soft tissue were significantly lower in ED patients. However, no significant difference in the hydration of FFM was detected. Compared with the 4C model, DXA overestimated FM by 5±36% and underestimated FFM by 1±9% in ED patients. CONCLUSION: Our study confirms that ED patients are depleted not only in FM but also in FFM, PM and MM. DXA has limitations for estimating body composition in individual young female ED patients.