REPRODUCIBILITY OF ANTHROPOMETRIC AND BODY-COMPOSITION MEASUREMENTS -THE HERITAGE FAMILY STUDY

OBJECTIVE: To determine the reproducibility of anthropometric and body composition measures using the HERITAGE Family Study protocol. DESIGN : Anthropometric and body composition measures were obtained on three separate days within a 3-wk period at each of the four HERITAGE Clinic al Centers. SUBJECTS: Sixty men and women representative of the HERITA GE subject population, 15 from each of four Clinical Centers. MEASUREM ENTS: Anthropometric measures included eight skinfolds. three girths a nd one length; and body composition measures included stature, mass, h ydrostatic weight, residual volume, and body density, from which relat ive fat, fat mass and fat-free mass were estimated. RESULTS: Reproduci bility as determined by technical error, coefficient of variation, and intraclass correlations was very high for the total sample. For examp le, intraclass correlations for the total sample generally ranged from 0.95-0.99 for the anthropometric measures, and from 0.97-1.00 for the body composition measures. The results across Clinical Centers were i n close agreement with each other and with the pooled data. CONCLUSION S: The reproducibility of anthropometric and body composition measures using the HERITAGE Family Study protocol is sufficiently high that it should be possible to detect small changes in any of these measures a nd to determine the genetic basis of these changes consequent to a 20 wk endurance training program.