Validity Of The Inbody Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer Visceral Adiposity Estimates

Abstract

Excess visceral adipose tissue is linked to health risks. However, methods for measuring VAT are expensive and not available to the general public (i.e., MRI, CT, DXA). The InBody bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) system could be a cheaper and practical method to provide VAT estimates. PURPOSE: To determine the validity of the InBody BIA visceral adiposity estimates. METHODS: A diverse sample of 210 participants completed the study (56 white females, 60 black females, 51 white males, and 59 black males). The InBody S10 estimates VAT area (VFA) while DXA estimates VAT mass and VAT volume. Thus, it was not possible to test absolute agreement. Pearson correlations were used to test the relationship between InBody VAT area and DXA VAT volume for the whole sample and by sex by race groups. The relationship between measured VAT and common cardiometabolic risk factors were also tested. RESULTS: The overall sample correlation between InBody VFA and DXA VAT mass was 0.76. The correlations were 0.85, 0.72, 0.80, and 0.73 for white females, black females, white males, and black males, respectively. The correlation between measured VAT and cardiometabolic factors is shown in Table 1. CONCLUSIONS: The correlations for the total sample and for black participants were moderately-high and high for white participants. Overall, the relationship between InBody VFA, DXA VAT mass, and cardiometabolic risk factors were similar. However, there were large differences (≥ 0.10) between the InBody and DXA for some cardiometabolic risk factors, notably DBP and HB1c. In addition, these large differences were present more often for black women and men. Overall, the InBody BIA performance was acceptable, and results tended to be better in white than black participants. Table 1. Pearson correlation between InBody VFA, DXA VAT mass, and cardiometabolic risk factors.