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A COMPARISON OF BODY FAT AND TOTAL BODY WATER MEASUREMENT AMONG COLLEGIATE FEMALE TENNIS PLAYERS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Measuring hydration as well as body fat percentage in collegiate athletes is crucial during periods of training and performance. Serial measurements of body fat percentage and hydration in collegiate athletes during the season can pose a challenge due to the NCAA Time Limits for Athletically Related Activities. Athletic programs face issues such as access to specialized equipment and athlete priority to practice and training, which limits their time to undergo testing for hydration and body fat percentage. PURPOSE: To evaluate the concordance in the measurements of body fat and hydration levels between the following three instruments: bioelectrical impedance BIA via Tanita, BIA via RJL Systems and body density measures via dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) among student athletes. METHODS: Nine female collegiate tennis players at a southeastern university volunteered for this study. The participants underwent each measurement procedure in alignment with manufacturer guidelines. Concordance correlation coefficients for measuring agreement were calculated to estimate the level of agreement regarding the measurements taken using three different methods: Tanita BIA, RJL BIA, and DXA. RESULTS: The participants had a mean age of 21.11 ± 1.9 years and BMI of 21.84 ± 2.91 kg/m2. When considering measurements for Body Fat (BF), the strongest agreement was between TANITA BIA and RJL BIA (concordance correlation [rc] = 0.641, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] [0.117, 0.886]). The measurement agreement for BF was smaller between RJL BIA and DXA (rc = 0.541, 95% CI [0.143, 0.788]) and TANITA BIA and DXA (rc = 0.454, 95% CI [0.075, 0.718]). The measurement agreement between TANITA BIA and RJL BIA for Total Body Water was smaller (rc = 0.383, 95% CI [0.017, 0.658]). CONCLUSIONS: This study found a stronger agreement between Tanita BIA and RJL BIA, which supports the use of these two instruments as convenient and interchangeable measurements in the field. However, using instruments for repeated measures is recommended considering inter-instrument reliability was weak. The study recommends using TANITA BIA as a valid field test of BF and hydration levels due to time constraints of NCAA student athletes. As research continues, further investigation should focus on larger sample sizes.

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