Formulae Evaluation for Estimating Body Surface Area of Korean Children

Body surface area (BSA) is an important parameter in the conduct of human exposure studies and in clinical processes in children. The aim of this paper was to compare seven BSA formulas and to find out which of these formulas is appropriate for use with Korean children. Body surface area was calculated according to age, age-group and BMI-group using the height and weight data of Korean children (n = 4899) ages 1 to 18 from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2012-2014). We used the formulas of Banerjee and Bhattacharya (1961), Fujimoto and Watanabe (1969), US EPA (1985), Gehan and George (1970), Boyd (1935), Haycock et al (1978) and Mosteller (1987). The average values of the seven formulas were calculated and used as norm values for comparison. All predictions showed a strong positive correlation with the overall average BSA values. Overestimations were observed on the calculations of Gehan and George (1970), US EPA (1985) and Boyd (1935) formulas. Banerjee and Bhattacharya (1961) and Fujimoto and Watanabe (1969) values showed underestimations and the largest error size of 0.027 m2 for all ages. BSA estimates of Mosteller (1987) and Haycock et al (1978) were found to be closer to the overall average BSA values with the least error size of 0.004 m2. Mosteller’s formula is recommended for use in the conduct of human exposure studies and in clinical practice among Korean children, although Haycock et al formula is appropriate for children from 1 to 2 years old.