Standing 8-electrode bioelectrical impedance analysis as an alternative method to estimate visceral fat area and body fat mass in athletes

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the potential of standing 8-electrode bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) for assessing visceral fat area (VFA) and body fat mass (BFM) in athletes. Materials and Methods: A total of 95 subjects (50 males and 45 females) were recruited. VFA and BFM measurements were obtained using three standing 8-electrode BIA devices, InBody230, InBody770, and IOI353. These acquired VFA and BFM were expressed as VFAIOI353, VFAInBody230, VFAInBody770 V, BFMIOI353, BFMInBody230, and BFMInBody770, respectively. As reference measurement, the VFA acquired from computer tomography (CT) was expressed as VFACT, and the BFM measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was denoted as BFMDXA. Results: The coefficient of determination (r2) in regression analysis between the measurements by VFAIOI353, VFAInBody230, VFAInBody770 and VFACT were 0.425, 0.492, and 0.473, respectively. Also, the limits of agreement (LOA) obtained from Bland–Altman analysis were −25.18 to 56.62, −29.74 to 62.44, and −32.96 to 71.93 cm2 . For BFM, r2 in regression analysis between the measurements by BFMIOI353, BFMInBody230, BFMInBody770 and BMFDXA were 0.894, 0.950, and 0.955, respectively; LOA were −7.21 to 5.75, −4.70 to 4.05, and −5.48 to 3.05 kg, respectively. Conclusion: The results showed when assessing BFM, these instruments delivered compar-able measurements, and the degree of agreement ranged from excellent to moderate compared with the reference method. However, when assessing VFA, the agreements were weak. Therefore, the application of standing 8-electrode BIA devices for assessing athletes’ VFA still needs improvement.