COMPARISON OF BODY-COMPOSITION ASSESSMENT BY HYDRODENSITOMETRY, SKINFOLDS, AND MULTIPLE SITE NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROPHOTOMETRY

Percent body fat (%BF) was assessed in 171 men with underwater weighin g (UWW), seven-site skinfolds (7 SF), and near-infrared spectrophotome try (NIR). NIR was determined at eight sites, including biceps, tricep s, axilla, chest, abdomen, suprailium, subscapula and thigh. Analysis of variance and Dunnett's post-hoc procedure revealed that NIR signifi cantly (P < 0.05) underpredicted %BF when using the biceps (12.9%), ch est (11.3%), abdomen (10.2%), subscapula (11.3%) and thigh (9.9%) site s compared to the criterion %BF measured with UWW (13.4% +/- SD = 6.49 ). %BF with 7 SF was only 0.3% higher than %BF with UWW (r = 0.94), st andard error of estimate = 2.9%). Correlation coefficients between SF thickness and NIR optical density readings at 940nm (OD1) and 950nm (O D2) wavelengths ranged from r = -0.30 (subscapula) to r = -0.67 (bicep s) for OD1 and r = -0.39 (axilla) to r = -0.68 (biceps) for OD2. Multi ple linear regression showed that the OD readings were not significant predictors of UWW %BF when using body mass, stature, activity level, and frame size as predictors, except for the OD2 reading at the biceps site. Stepwise regression revealed that NIR OD readings did not predi ct additional variance in %BF beyond mass, stature, activity level, fr ame size, or 7 SF. It was concluded that 7 SF are better predictors of %BF than NIR, and that NIR at multiple sites is inconsistent in asses sing body composition.