Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome

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J Korean Soc Study Obes 2002; 11(4): 398-405

Published online December 1, 2002

Copyright © Korean Society for the Study of Obesity.

Evaluation of Simple Methods to Estimate Body Composition in Female

Hyun-Soo Kim

Dept. of Leisure of Sports, Seoul National University of Technology

Abstract

Background: Simple methods are needed to
assess the total body fat of individual human
subjects. The bioelectrical impedance (BI) techniques
have been developed as a convenient, valid approach
to estimate body composition in normal, healthy
adults. However, the validity of these methods has
not been compared in the Korean subjects. The
purposes of this study were (1) to evaluate the
validity of % body fat using 5 kinds of indirect
method-5 brands of BI analyzers against body fat
data derived by underwater weighing, and (2) to discuss the accuracy of each method.
Methods: The subjects were 61 women, aged 20
to 59 years (41.3±12.0 yr). The BI analyzers used
for this study were the InBody 3.0, HBF-306,
GIF-891DX, TBF-611 and NEOSCAN.
Results: Percentage of body fat estimated by each
method was significantly correlated (r=0.67-0.77)
with the data from underwater weighing, and
standard error of estimate (SEE) for % body fat was
about 4% for subject.
Conclusion: The accuracy of %fat estimated by
the GIF-891DX was slightly worse than those for
the other BI analyzers. From these results, it is
concluded that % body fat can be estimated by each
method without a large discrepancy. However, the
validity of each method for estimating % body fat
may not be as high as other reference methods.
Further research is necessary for improvement of
prediction accuracy.

Keywords: Underwater Weighing, Bioelectrical Impedance, Body Fat