Source: Diabetes Care  |  Posted 9 years ago

Combined ethnicity, calf skinfold and fasting insulin accurately predicts insulin sensitivity in children with more precision than does homeostasis model assessment or fasting insulin alone.

Ethnicity, calf skinfold and fasting insulin taken together account for 73 percent of the variance in insulin sensitivity, according to investigators who studied 156 white and African American children of a mean age of 9.7 years.

The investigators, from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, United States, evaluated homeostasis model assessment and two new equations for predicting insulin sensitivity. The two new equations were based on demographic and anthropometric measures with and without the presence of fasting insulin.

Results showed that modified homeostasis assessment predicted insulin sensitivity with a utility similar to fasting insulin alone.

Demographic and anthropometric measures did not accurately predict insulin sensitivity on their own or when body composition was included in the prediction model.

However, when the model combined ethnicity, calf skinfold and fasting insulin, insulin sensitivity was accurately predicted in these children with greater precision than homeostasis model assessment or fasting insulin.