Comparison of Body Composition by Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis and Dual‐Energy X‐Ray Absorptiometry in Hispanic Diabetics

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare Tanita tetrapolar foot‐to‐foot bioelectrical impedance analysis (Model TBF‐310, Tanita Corporation of America, Arlington Heights, IL; Tanita‐BIA) and fan beam dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (Hologic Discovery A v12.6, Waltham, MA; DXA). Seventy Hispanic diabetic participants (23 male, 47 female; mean age: 53.03 ± 10.32 yrs; mean weight: 81.45 ± 17.65 kg; and mean body mass index: 31.40 ± 6.80 kg/m^2) participated in a three‐month diabetes education follow‐up study. Fat mass (FM), percent fat mass (%FM), and fat free mass (FFM) were compared using both relative and absolute measures of agreement. Relative measures included Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlation coefficients while absolute agreement was assessed using Bland‐Altman analyses and concordance correlation with 95% confidence intervals calculated using a bootstrap resampling of the data. Pearson's (FM: 0.96, %FM: 0.91, and FFM: 0.82), and Spearman's rank (FM: 0.94, %FM: 0.91, and FFM: 0.92) correlation coefficients showed high measures of association. Bland‐Altman and concordance analyses also demonstrated good agreement [FM: 0.93 (95% CI: 0.89, 0.96)], [%FM: 0.86 (95% CI: 0.79, 0.90)], and [FFM: 0.93 (95% CI: 0.89, 0.96)]. Tanita‐BIA may provide valid measures of FM, %FM and FFM in Hispanic diabetics, and could be a convenient and practical approach for assessment in community‐based research. This study was supported in part by grants 03‐00335 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and 5P20MD001632 from the National Institutes of Health.