title: A comparison study of portable foot-to-foot bioelectrical impedance scale to measure body fat percentage in Asian adults and children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the measurements of body fat percentage (BF%) using the foot-to-foot bioelectrical impedance analysis (FTF-BIA) with the direct segmental multifrequency BIA (DSM-BIA).
  
  
  METHODS
  There were 36 men and 52 women (37.1 ± 14.3 years) with 57% Malays, 30% Chinese, and 13% Indian. For children, there were 45 boys and 26 girls (11.5 ± 2.5 years) with 52% Malay, 15% Chinese, and 33% Indian.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean height for men was 168.4 cm, 11 cm taller than women. Men were 10 kg heavier than women at 70 kg. BF% in women was 32% and 33% whereas BF% in men was 23% and 25% when measured using FTF-BIA and DSM-BIA, respectively. In children, BF% measured with FTF-BIA and DSM-BIA was 49% and 46%, respectively. The correlations were significant for men (r = 0.92, SEE = 2.80), women (r = 0.91, SEE = 3.31), boys (r = 0.95, SEE = 5.44), and girls (r = 0.96, SEE = 5.27). The BF% in underweight/normal (r = 0.92, SEE = 2.47) and that in overweight/obese adults (r = 0.89, SEE = 3.61) were strongly correlated. The correlations were significant in normal/underweight (r = 0.94, SEE = 3.78) and obese/overweight children (r = 0.83, SEE = 6.49). All ethnic groups showed significant correlation with BF%. Malay adults (r = 0.92, SEE = 3.27) and children (r = 0.94, SEE = 0.88) showed significant mean differences in BF%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The FTF-BIA showed higher accuracy for all normal/underweight and Chinese group with acceptable overestimation in children and underestimation in adults. Caution should be taken when interpreting BF% depending on gender, BMI, and ethnicity.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health (CePH) and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Pei Ying
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Sim
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health (CePH) and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Tin Tin
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Centre for Population Health (CePH) and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Hazreen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Abd Majid
authors.affiliation: Department of Sports Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Azmi Mohamed
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Nahar
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Muhammad Yazid
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Jalaludin
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry / Q000379:methods*; D044466:Asian People; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D017097:Electric Impedance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male