Bioelectrical impedance in the Air Force Weight Management Program

Thousands of active-duty soldiers undergo weight evaluations each year and are subjected to disciplinary action if they fail to comply with established weight standards. This regulation consumes scarce available resources by requiring medical appointments. This study focuses on the use of bioelectrical impedance to determine body fat. It compared the physician's assistants with technicians for correlation of body fat percentage determinations. The correlation was r = .939 (p less than .0151) between the two groups. The use of technicians to determine body fat percentages using bioelectrical impedance appears to be a reasonable way to recover thousands of lost medical appointment slots.