Development and cross-validation of a prediction equation for estimating resting energy expenditure in healthy African-American and European-American women

Objective: To develop, validate, and cross-validate a formula for predicting resting energy expenditure (REE) in African-American and European-American women. Design: A cross-sectional study of REE in women. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group served to develop and validate a new equation for predicting REE while the second was used to cross-validate the prediction equation. The accuracy of the equation was compared to several existing formulae. Setting: University metabolic laboratory, Memphis, TN, USA. Subjects: Healthy, premenopausal African-American and European-American women between 18 and 39 y of age. The validation sample included 239 women (age: 28.4 y, wt: 70.7 kg, body mass index (BMI): 25.2 kg/m(2), REE: 5840 kJ/day), while the cross-validation sample consisted of 232 women (age: 27.5 y, wt: 70.7 kg, BMI: 25.2 kg/m(2), REE: 5784 kJ/day). Results: The prediction equation derived from the current sample, which included adjustments for ethnicity, was the only formula that demonstrated a high level of accuracy for predicting REE in both African-American and European-American women. The mean difference between REE predicted from the new formula and measured REE was 28 kJ/day (s.d. = 668) for European-American women and 142 kJ/day (s.d. = 584) for African-American women. Conclusions: Previous equations for predicting energy needs may not be appropriate for both African-American and European-American women due to ethnic differences in REE. A new equation that makes adjustments in predicted REE based on ethnicity is recommended for determining energy needs in these groups (Predicted REE (kJ/day) = 616.93 = 14.9 (AGE (y)) + 35.12 (WT (kg)) + 19.83 (HT (cm)) - 271.88 (ETHNICITY: 1 = African American; 0 = European American)). Sponsorship: Support for this study was provided by Grant #HL53261 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.