Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To investigate methodological and biological precision for air-displacement plethysmography (ADP) across a wide range of body size.
DESIGN: Repeated measurements of body volume (BV) and body weight (WT), and derived estimates of density (BD) and indices of fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM).
SUBJECTS: Sixteen men, aged 22–48 y; 12 women, aged 24–42 y; 13 boys, aged 5–14 y; 17 girls, aged 5–16 y.
MEASUREMENTS: BV and WT were measured using the Bodpod ADP system from which estimates of BD, FM and FFM were derived. FM and FFM were further adjusted for height to give fat mass index (FMI) and fat-free mass index (FFMI).
RESULTS: ADP is very precise for measuring both BV and BD (between 0.16 and 0.44% of the mean). After removing two outliers from the database, and converting BD to body composition, precision of FMI was <6% in adults and within 8% in children, while precision of FFMI was within 1.5% for both age groups.
CONCLUSION: ADP shows good precision for BV and BD across a wide range of body size, subject to biological artefacts. If aberrant values can be identified and rejected, precision of body composition is also good. Aberrant values can be identified by using pairs of ADP procedures, allowing the rejection of data where successive BD values differed by >0.007 kg/l. Precision of FMI obtained using pairs of procedures improves to <4.5% in adults and <5.5% in children.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Fuller NJ, Jebb SA, Laskey MA, Coward WA, Elia M . Four-component model for the assessment of body composition in humans: comparison with alternative methods, and evaluation of the density and hydration of fat-free mass Clin Sci 1992 82: 687–693.
Fomon SJ, Haschke F, Ziegler EE, Nelson SE . Body composition of reference children from birth to age 10 years Am J Clin Nutr 1982 35: 1169–1175.
Wells JCK, Fuller NJ, Dewit O, Fewtrell MS, Elia M, Cole TJ . Four-component model of body composition in children: density and hydration of fat-free mass and comparison with simpler models Am J Clin Nutr 1999 69: 904–912.
Siri WE . Body composition from fluid spaces and density: analysis of methods. In: Brozek J, Henschel A (eds). Techniques for measuring body composition National Academy of Sciences: Washington, DC 1961 pp 223–244.
Heald FP, Hunt EE, Schwartz R, Cook CD, Elliot D, Vajda B . Measures of body fat and hydration in adolescent boys Pediatrics 1963 31: 226–239.
Boileau RA, Lohman TG, Slaughter MH, Ball TE, Going SB, Hendrix MK . Hydration of the fat-free body in children during maturation Hum Biol 1984 56: 651–666.
Deurenberg P, van der Kooy K, Paling A, Withagen P . Assessment of body composition in 8–11 year old children by bioelectrical impedance Eur J Clin Nutr 1989 43: 623–629.
Reilly JJ, Wilson J, Durnin JVGA . Determination of body composition from skinfold thickness: a validation study Arch Dis Child 1995 73: 305–310.
Dempster P, Aitkens S . A new air displacement method for the determination of human body composition Med Sci Sports Exerc 1995 27: 1692–1697.
McCrory MA, Gornez TD, Bernauer EM, Molé PA . Evaluation of a new air displacement plethysmograph for measuring human body composition Med Sci Sports Exerc 1995 27: 1686–1691.
Nunez C, Kovera AJ, Pietrobelli A, Heshka S, Horlick M, Kehayias JJ, Wang Z, Heymsfield SB . Body composition in children and adults by air displacement plethysmography Eur J Clin Nutr 1999 53: 382–387.
Wagner DR, Heyward YH, Gibson AL . Validation of air displacement plethysmography for assessing body composition Med Sci Sports Exerc 2000 32: 1339–1344.
Collins MA, Millard-Stafford ML, Sparling PB, Snow TK, Rosskopf LB, Webb SA, Omer J . Evaluation of the BOD POD for assessing body fat in collegiate football players Med Sci Sports Exerc 1999 31: l350–1356.
Dewit O, Fuller NJ, Fewtrell MS, Elia M, Wells JCK . Whole body air displacement plethysmography compared with hydrodensitometry for body composition analysis Arch Dis Child 2000 82: 159–164.
Lockner DW, Heyward VH, Baumgartner RN, Jenkins KA . Comparison of air-displacement plethysmography, hydrodensitometry, and dual X-ray absorptiometry for assessing body composition of children 10 to 18 years of age Ann NY Acad Sci 2000 904: 72–78.
Crapo RO, Morris AH, Clayton PD, Nixon CR . Lung volumes in healthy non-smoking adults Bull Eur Physiopath Resp 1982 18: 419–425.
Rosenthal M, Cramer D, Bain SH, Denison D, Bush A, Warner JO . Lung function in white children aged 4 to 19 years: II—single breath analysis and plethysmography Thorax 1993 48: 803–808.
Zapletal A, Paul T, Samanek M . Normal values of static pulmonary volumes and ventilation in children and adolescents Ceskoslovenská Pediatrie 1976 31: 532–539.
Lohman TG . Assessment of body composition in children Pediatr Exerc Sci 1989 1: 19–30.
Van Itallie TB, Yang M, Heymsfield SB, Funk RC, Boileau RA . Height-normalised indices of the body's fat-free and fat mass: potentially useful indicators of nutritional status Am J Clin Nutr 1990 52: 953–959.
Fuller NJ, Jebb SA, Goldberg GR, Pullicino E, Adams C, Cole TJ, Elia M . Inter-observer variability in the measurement of body composition Eur J Clin Nutr 1991 45: 43–49.
Bland JM, Altman DG . Statistical methods for assessing agreement between two methods of clinical measurement Lancet 1986 i: 307–310.
Cole TJ, Freeman JV, Preece MA . Body mass index reference curves for the UK, 1990 Arch Dis Child 1995 73: 25–29.
Fields DA, Hunter GR, Goran MI . Validation of the BOD POD with hydrostatic weighing: influence of body clothing Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2000 24: 200–205.
McCrory MA, Molé PA, Gomez TD, Dewey KG, Bernauer EM . Body composition by air-displacement plethysmography by using predicted and measured thoracic gas volumes J Appl Physiol 1998 84: 1475–1479.
Stocks J, Quanjer PH . Reference values for residual volume, functional residual capacity and total lung capacity Eur Respir J 1995 8: 492–506.
Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to Professor Tim Cole of the Institute of Child Health, London, for his advice regarding the statistical analyses and error propagation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wells, J., Fuller, N. Precision of measurement and body size in whole-body air-displacement plethysmography. Int J Obes 25, 1161–1167 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0801634
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0801634
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Body composition in young female eating-disorder patients with severe weight loss and controls: evidence from the four-component model and evaluation of DXA
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2015)
-
Is a single bioelectrical impedance equation valid for children of wide ranges of age, pubertal status and nutritional status? Evidence from the 4-component model
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2013)
-
Reliability and Intermethod Agreement for Body Fat Assessment Among Two Field and Two Laboratory Methods in Adolescents
Obesity (2012)
-
Air-displacement plethysmography for the measurement of body composition in children aged 6–48 months
Pediatric Research (2012)
-
Prenatal and postnatal programming of body composition in obese children and adolescents: evidence from anthropometry, DXA and the 4-component model
International Journal of Obesity (2011)