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Body composition, energy expenditure and physical activity

Body weight difference between dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis attenuates the equivalence of body-composition assessment

Abstract

Background/objectives

Low agreement of body-composition analysis (BCA) using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (MF-BIA) has been reported. We examined whether this discrepancy is influenced by the precision of body weight (BW) measurement using DXA.

Subjects/methods

This cross-sectional study enrolled 1353 participants aged 53–83 years. A whole-body DXA scan and an eight-polar tactile-electrode impedance-meter using four electronic frequencies of 5, 50, 250, and 500 kHz were employed for BCA. The level of agreement between BW estimated using DXA and actual BW (WgtA) was calculated. The agreement of BCA parameters using DXA and MF-BIA across WgtA groups was also assessed.

Results

DXA incorrectly estimated BW, especially in men. In total, 13.5%, 5.1%, and 5.6% of the participants had BW bias levels of 2%, 3%, and ≥4%, respectively. Correlations of BCA parameters measured using DXA and MF-BIA, including body fat mass, percent body fat, and lean body mass (LBM), were gradually reduced, whereas the root mean square error was increased in accordance with the reduction in WgtA. DXA provided a lower LBM amount compared to MF-BIA and this difference increased significantly across groups with poor WgtA.

Conclusions

Lower WgtA greatly contributed to the difference in BCA measured using DXA and MF-BIA.

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Funding

This research was supported by a fund (2014-E71003-00) from the research of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (Nos. 10068076, 2014M3A9D7034366, 2015M3A9B6028310).

Author contributions

CS, SKL, and NHK designed and supervised the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES), defined the research theme and edited the manuscript. DDP and CHL designed the methods, analyzed the data, interpreted the results, and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chol Shin or Chae Hun Leem.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

Table 1S. Correlation between the difference in body weight measured by DXA and MF-BIA and anthropometric indices

41430_2018_164_MOESM2_ESM.docx

Table 1S. Comparison of difference in body composition analysis (BCA) by DXA versus MF-BIA of Shillanpaa et al and of the BW matched group in the current study

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Pham, D.D., Lee, S.K., Shin, C. et al. Body weight difference between dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis attenuates the equivalence of body-composition assessment. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 387–394 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0164-4

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