Comparison of air-displacement plethysmography with hydrostatic weighing and bioelectrical impedance analysis for the assessment of body composition in healthy adults.
BACKGROUND
Over the past decade, considerable attention has been paid to accurately measuring body composition in diverse populations. Recently, the use of air-displacement plethysmography (AP) was proposed as an accurate, comfortable, and accessible method of body-composition analysis.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to compare measurements of percentage body fat (%BF) by AP and 2 other established techniques, hydrostatic weighing (HW) and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), in adults.


METHODS
The sample consisted of healthy men (n = 23) and women (n = 24). %BF was measured by AP, HW, and BIA.


RESULTS
In the total group, %BF(AP) (25.0+/-8.9%) was not significantly different from %BF(HW) (25.1+/-7.7%) or %BF(BIA) (23.9+/-7.7%), and %BF(AP) was significantly correlated with %BF(HW) (r = 0.944, P < 0.001) and with %BF(BIA) (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%), indicating a significant sex effect (P < 0.05). The differences in estimation between AP and BIA and between BIA and HW were not significantly different between the sexes.


CONCLUSIONS
AP is an accurate method for assessing body composition in healthy adults. Future studies should assess further the cause of the individual variations with this new method.
Biaggi
R R
RR
Department of Medicine, School of Nursing, and the General Clinical Research Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Vollman
M W
MW
Nies
M A
MA
Brener
C E
CE
Flakoll
P J
PJ
Levenhagen
D K
DK
Sun
M
M
Karabulut
Z
Z
Chen
K Y
KY
D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000328:Adult; D000388:Air; D001823:Body Composition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006874:Hydrostatic Pressure; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010991:Plethysmography / Q000379:methods*; D010992:Plethysmography, Impedance