Determinação da densidade corporal por equações generalizadas: facilidade e simplificação no método

The determination of body density (BD) by skinfold thickness measurements is broadly used around the world. It was examined the agreement between two equations that use seven (SS) and three (TS) skinfold thickness measurements to assess the BD. The BD was evaluated in 72 men and 93 women aged 18-58 years. Paired Student t-test, Pearson's correlation, and Bland-Altman analysis were used to evaluate agreement between the measurements. The BD was highly similar to men (SS: 1.043 ± 0.014; TS: 1.043 ± 0.015) and women (SS: 1.025 ± 0.014; TS: 1.026 ± 0.016), with excellent correlations (men: 0.97; women: 0.92). The Bland-Altman analysis indicated excellent agreement for men (bias: 0.0007 ± 0.0035) and women (bias: 0.0004 ± 0.0064), with minimal disagreement (men: -0.0062 to 0.0077; women: -0.0121 to 0.0130). This study showed that the use of only three skinfold measurements is acceptable for determination of BD, with the advantage of optimization of the time spent for evaluation.