AnthropologicAl review • vol. 81(2), 158–173 (2018) AnthropologicAl review Available online at: www.degruyter.com/view/j/anre/ Journal homepage: www.ptantropologiczne.pl 1 Department of Anthropology, University of North Bengal, West Bengal, India 2 Department of Anthropology, Assam University, Diphu Campus, Assam, India Original Research Article Received July 4, 2017 Revised April 20, 2018 Accepted April 26, 2018 DOI: 10.2478/anre-2018-0011 © 2018 Polish Anthropological Society AbstrAct: Percent of body fat (PBF), fat mass (FM) and fat free mass (FFM) are useful indicators for the assessment of body composition. The present study was conducted among 1351 children (boys: 660; girls: 691) aged 5–12 years residing in West Bengal, Eastern-India. The children were selected using a stratified random sampling method. Anthropometric measurements of height, weight, triceps skinfold (TSF) and sub-scapular skinfold (SSF) were recorded using standard procedures. The PBF, PBF-for-age z-score (PBFZ) and body mass index (BMI) were subsequently calculated. Body composition was assessed using FM, FFM, fat mass index (FMI) and fat free mass index (FFMI). Age-specific mean values of FM ranged from 2.12–4.00 kg (boys) and 2.16–4.40 kg (girls). Age-specific mean values of FFM ranged from 14.45–23.93 kg (boys) and 14.01–23.03 kg (girls). Sex-specific mean differences between sexes were statistically significant in weight, height, TSF, SSF, PBF, PBFAZ, FM, FFM, FMI and FFMI (p<0.05), except in BMI (p>0.05). These results are important for future investigations in clinical and epidemiological settings so as to accurately identify the risk of lower or higher adiposity and body composition using PBF, FM and FFM. Key words: Adiposity, anthropometry, body composition, fat mass, fat free mass, percent of body fat Sampriti Debnath 1 , Nitish Mondal 2 , Jaydip Sen 1 Percent of body fat, fat-mass, fat-free mass and assessment of body composition among rural school-going children of Eastern-India Introduction Body fat is a normal component of hu- man body that accumulates in adipose tissue. It serves as a useful marker for assessing adiposity of individuals (Hu 2008; Sen and Mondal 2013; Colley et al. 2015; Griffiths et al. 2016; Xue et al. 2016). The predictions of body fatness and body composition are based most- ly upon anthropometric measures such as height, weight, percentage body fat (PBF), body mass index (BMI), waist- hip ratio and skinfold thickness (Rol- land-Cachera 1993; Hall et al. 2007). Al- though, several sophisticated techniques such as bioelectrical impedance analysis, dual-X-ray absorptiometry, computer- ized tomography, underwater weighing have also been developed to determine