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Comparative Study
. 2014:2014:475659.
doi: 10.1155/2014/475659. Epub 2014 Aug 28.

A comparison study of portable foot-to-foot bioelectrical impedance scale to measure body fat percentage in Asian adults and children

Pei Ying Sim  1 , Tin Tin Su  1 , Hazreen Abd Majid  1 , Azmi Mohamed Nahar  2 , Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin  3
Affiliations
Comparative Study

A comparison study of portable foot-to-foot bioelectrical impedance scale to measure body fat percentage in Asian adults and children

Pei Ying Sim et al. Biomed Res Int. 2014.

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%.

Conclusion: 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.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bland-Altman plots of body fat percentage (BF%) in foot-to-foot BIA and direct segmental multifrequency BIA in adults ((a) men; (b) women) and children ((c) boys; (d) girls) by gender and in BMI groups adults ((e) normal/underweight; (f) obese/overweight) and children ((g) normal/underweight; (h) obese/overweight) and by ethnicity in adults ((i) Malay; (j) Chinese; (k) Indian) and children ((l) Malay; (m) Chinese; (n) Indian).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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