•  
  •  
 

VALIDITYOF A BIOELECTRIC IMPEDENCE DEVICE TO ASSESS BODY COMPOSITION IN COLLEGIATE FEMALE BASKETBALL ATHLETES

Abstract

Dixitaben R. Patel, Jason D. Wagganer, Jeremy T. Barnes, & Monica L. Kearney Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO.

Body composition is an important determinant of success in basketball athletes for whom jumping, sprinting, and other power activities are critical to sport performance. Hence accurate measurement of body composition should be the goal of strength and conditioning and sports performance professionals. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is considered a criterion measure for assessing body composition, but it is expensive and not accessible to all populations. In contrast, bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) is a more affordable and accessible tool for assessment of body composition in the field, but validity of various BIA devices in Division I female basketball athletes is unknown. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare body fat percent (BF%) values from a whole-body BIA device to values obtained via DXA in collegiate female American basketball athletes. METHODS: Eighty-five Division I female basketball athletes (age 20±1years, body weight 163.8 ± 21.0 pounds) were instructed to arrive to the laboratory hydrated to provide a urine sample prior to performing a full-body DXA scan and BIA analysis. Because hydration status can impact BF% accuracy using BIA, USG was measured to ensure all athletes were adequately hydrated. The urine sample was also used to test for pregnancy prior to the DXA scan. After examining data for normality, a paired samples t-test was performed to assess BF% differences between the two methods, and a Pearson product moment correlation analysis was done to investigate the relationship between the variables. RESULTS: There was a significant difference (p<0.001) between DXABF% (26.37 ± 0.75%) and BIA BF% (20.18 ± 0.69%), and a positive correlation (r=0.799; p<0.001) was found. CONCLUSION: While there was a positive correlation between the two measurements of BF%, the BIA values were significantly lower than the criterion DXA. This suggests that the BIA device used in this analysis may not be valid for measuring BF% in female Division I basketball athletes. Further research, using other BIA devices, should be conducted on female collegiate basketball athletes to more clearly define the reliability of different body composition tools.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS