Alimentos e Nutrição (Aug 2013)

EVALUATION OF BODY FAT COMPOSITION IN BRAZILIAN WOMEN BY ANTHROPOMETRY, BIOIMPEDANCE AND DUAL ENERGY X-RAY ABSORPTIOMETRY

  • Daniella Cristine Fialho LOPES,
  • Marialice Pinto Coelho SILVESTRE,
  • Mauro Ramalho SILVA,
  • Viviane Dias Medeiros SILVA,
  • Letícia Meniccuci GERALDI,
  • Regiane Bouzada Dias CAMPOS,
  • Larissa Lovatto AMORIN,
  • Thaís Garcias MOREIRA

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 24, no. 3
pp. 259 – 265

Abstract

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This study was designed to evaluate and compare the percentage of body fat (% BF) in women with % BF over 30% by three different methods: skinfolds (SKF), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). In addition, the behavior of quantitative variables such as body mass index (BMI) and DXA was evaluated. Twenty-eight volunteers who averaged 27.7 years old, 76.2 kg, 1.63 m tall and with a BMI of 28.5 kg/m² participated in this study. The assessment of body fat by DXA, SKF and BIA gave means of 44.1%, 39.8% and 34.3%, respectively. The BMI data, used to classify obesity, ranged from 22.22 to 37.5 kg/ m². Statistical differences were found among the values obtained using the three methods (P < 0.001). It can be inferred that different results may be obtained depending on the technique used for measuring fat percentage, DXA showed the highest sensitivity, followed by SKF and BIA. All techniques provided values strongly associated with BMI, however, some subjects with % BF over 30% were classified as normal weight by BMI.

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