AN EMPIRICAL STUDY AND ANALYSIS ON AIR DISPLACEMENT PLETHYSMOGRAPHY VERSUS DUAL-ENERGY X-RAY ABSORTIOMETRY IN UNDERWEIGHT, NORMAL-WEIGHT, AND OVERWEIGHT INDIVIDUALS

Abstract

Background: The determination and assessment of body composition can provide important
information about a wide variety of populations including the diseased, the apparently
healthy, the obese, and the athletic. Estimating fat percentage accurately is critical for
assessing health and selecting treatment options. However, methods for determining body
composition, such as hydrostatic weighing or dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), can
be costly, need significant operator training. These drawbacks underlie the importance of
finding one device or method for estimating body composition which can accommodate a
wide variety of different members of the population, provide the greatest accuracy.
Objective:The primary purpose of this investigation was to compare estimations of percentag
e body fat (%fat) using air displacement plethysmography (ADP) and dual-energy x-ray
absorptiometry (DEXA), in a heterogeneous ( %fat) sample of the population.
Method: The study was conducted in MYAS-GNDU, Department of Sports Sciences and
Medicine. Determination of body fat percentage was done by two different methods (DEXA,
BOD POD) among underweight (n = 10), normal weight (n = 10) and overweight (n = 10)
subsets of the sample classified according to their BMI. Each subset of the sample was
further divided in 5 males and 5 females.
Result: Higher body fat percentages were observed for DEXA values in all the three weight
categories as compared to BOD POD. Significant differences (p<0.005) were observed in fat
percentage in males and females and between the subjects of the three considered BMI
categories (underweight, normal and overweight). No statistically significant differences
were observed in body fat percentage values for the entire range of BMI by DEXA and BOD
POD.