Predicting body composition using foot-to-foot bioelectrical impedance analysis in healthy Asian individuals

Background The objectives of this study were to develop a regression model for predicting fat-free mass (FFM) in a population of healthy Taiwanese individuals using standing foot-to-foot bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and to test the model’s performance in predicting FFM with different body fat percentages (BF%). Methods We used dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to measure the FFM of 554 healthy Asian subjects (age, 16–75 y; body mass index, 15.8–43.1 kg/m 2 ). We also evaluated the validity of the developed multivariate model using a double cross-validation technique and assessed the accuracy of the model in an all-subjects sample and subgroup samples with different body fat levels. Results Predictors in the all-subjects multivariate model included height 2 /impedance, weight, year, and sex (FFM = 13.055 + 0.204 weight + 0.394 height 2 /Impedance – 0.136 age + 8.125 sex (sex: Female = 0, Male = 1), r 2 = 0.92, standard error of the estimate = 3.17 kg). The correlation coefficients between predictive FFM by BIA (FFM BIA ) and DXA-measured FFM (FFM DXA ) in female subjects with a total-subjects BF% DXA of <20 %, 20 %–30 %, 30 %–40 % and >40 % were r = 0.87, 0.90, 0.91, 0.89, and 0.94, respectively, with bias ± 2SD of 0.0 ± 3.0 kg, −2.6 ± 1.7 kg, −1.5 ± 2.8 kg, 0.5 ± 2.7 kg, and 2.0 ± 2.9 kg, respectively. The correlation coefficients between FFM BIA and FFM DXA in male subjects with a total-subjects BF% DXA of <10 %, 10 %–20 %, 20 %–30 %, and >30 % were r = 0.89, 0.89, 0.90, 0.93, and 0.91, respectively, with bias ± 2SD of 0.0 ± 3.2 kg, −2.3 ± 2.5 kg, −0.5 ± 3.2 kg, 0.4 ± 3.1 kg, and 2.1 ± 3.2 kg, respectively. Conclusions The standing foot-to-foot BIA method developed in this study can accurately predict FFM in healthy Asian individuals with different levels of body fat.