| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
A comparison of field methods to assess body composition in a diverse group of sedentary women
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kdalonzo{at}rutgers.edu.
Accurate assessment of body composition is essential in the evaluation of obesity. While laboratory methods are commonly used to assess fat mass, field measures (e.g., skinfold thickness [SKF] and bioelectrical impedance [BIA]) may be more practical for screening large numbers of individuals in intervention studies. In this study, a correlational design was used among 46 racially and ethnically diverse, sedentary women (mean age = 25.73 years) to (a) compare the percentage of body fat as determined by SKF and the upper body BIA and (b) examine the effects of body mass index (BMI), racial/ethnic background, age, and stage of the menstrual cycle on differences in the estimated percentage of body fat obtained using the SKF and BIA. Overall, a significant correlation between SKF and BIA (r = .98, p < .001) was found, with similar findings among Black, Hispanic and White non-Hispanic women. The mean differences between BIA and SKF were not significantly correlated with BMI, age, race/ethnicity or stage of the menstrual cycle. Data from this study suggest that BIA showed similar body fat prediction values compared with SKF and may be a viable alternative to SKF among diverse groups of healthy women. Additional testing and comparison of these field methods with the laboratory methods of hydrodensitometry or dual energy X-ray absorptiometry is recommended to further determine whether BIA devices can be routinely recommended as an alternative to the SKF.
First published on November 19, 2008, doi:10.1177/1099800408326583 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
 |
|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
