Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis for evaluating zinc supplementation in prepubertal and
healthy children
Sammanfattning
Background: The prevalence of abnormal nutritional status has increased in children and
adolescents. Nutritional assessment is important for monitoring the health and nutritional status.
Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) combines changes in tissue hydration and structure
and body composition that can be assessed.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to use BIVA to evaluate nutritional status in 60
prepubertal children, aged between 8 and 9 years, supplemented with zinc, to detect possible
changes in body composition.
Design: We performed a randomized, controlled, triple-blind study. The children were divided into the
control group (CG; sorbitol 10%, n=29) or the experimental group (EG; 10 mg Zn/day, n=31), and the
duration of the experiment was 3 months. Anthropometric assessments were performed for all of the
children.
Results: The body mass index-for-age increased after oral zinc supplementation in the EG (p=0.005).
BIVA indicated that the CG demonstrated a tendency for dehydration and decreased soft tissue and
the EG demonstrated a tendency for increased soft tissue, primarily the fat-free mass. After analyses
of BIVA ellipses, we observed that this method could detect improvements in body composition in
healthy children supplemented with zinc.
Conclusions: These results suggest that BIVA could be an auxiliary method for studying a small
population undergoing zinc intervention