Comparison of air-displacement plethysmography with hydrostatic weighing and bioelectrical impedance analysis for the assessment of body composition in healthy adults
Rr. Biaggi et al., Comparison of air-displacement plethysmography with hydrostatic weighing and bioelectrical impedance analysis for the assessment of body composition in healthy adults, AM J CLIN N, 69(5), 1999, pp. 898-903
Background: Over the past decade, considerable attention has been paid to a
ccurately measuring body composition in diverse populations. Recently, the
use of air-displacement plethysmography (AP) was proposed as an accurate, c
omfortable, and accessible method of body-composition analysis.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare measurements of percent
age body fat (%BF) by AP and 2 other established techniques, hydrostatic we
ighing (HW) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), in adults.
Design: The sample consisted of healthy men (n = 23) and women (n = 24). %B
F was measured by AP, HW, and BIA.
Results: In the total group, %BFAP (25.0 +/- 8.9%) was not significantly di
fferent from %BFHW (25.1 +/- 7.7%) or %BFBIA (23.9 +/- 7.7%), and %BFAP was
significantly correlated with %BFHW (r = 0.944, P < 0.001) and with %BFBIA
(r = 0.859, P < 0.01). Compared with HW, AP underestimated %BF in men (by
-1.24 +/- 3.12%) but overestimated %BF in women (by 1.02 +/- 2.48%), indica
ting a significant sex effect (P < 0.05). The differences in estimation bet
ween AP and BIA and between BIA and HW were not significantly different bet
ween the sexes.
Conclusion: AP is an accurate method for assessing body composition in heal
thy adults. Future studies should assess further the cause of the individua
l variations with this new method.