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Withings Body Cardio versus Gold Standards of Pulse-Wave Velocity and Body Composition

Scott R Collier1, Conner McCraw1, Megan Campany1

  • 1Department of Health and Exercise Science, Appalachian State University Boone, NC. 28608, USA.

Journal of Personalized Medicine
|March 15, 2020
PubMed

Insights

The Withings Body Cardio scale accurately measures body mass and pulse-wave velocity (PWV), but caution is advised for fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM) readings.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiovascular Health
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Consumer Health Technology

Background:

  • Home blood pressure monitors are common, but pulse-wave velocity (PWV) may better define cardiovascular health.
  • The Withings Body Cardio scale is unique in measuring PWV and body composition (fat mass [FM], fat-free mass [FFM]) at home.
  • Previous studies confirmed acceptable accuracy for the device, but none addressed gravitational effects on aortic-leg PWV.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the accuracy of the Withings Body Cardio scale for measuring PWV and body composition.
  • To compare the scale's measurements against gold-standard methods.

Main Methods:

  • 20 healthy young adults (males and females) used the Body Cardio scale.
  • Measurements were compared to applanation tonometry (SphygmoCor) for PWV and air displacement plethysmography (Bod Pod) for body composition.
  • Bland-Altman analysis and mean absolute percent error (MAPE) were used for accuracy assessment.

Main Results:

  • The Body Cardio scale showed a mean bias of 0.68 m/s for PWV and overestimated fat mass (FM) by 2.91 kg (MAPE 25.8%).
  • It underestimated body mass (BM) by 0.11 kg (MAPE 0.15%) and fat-free mass (FFM) by 2.87 kg (MAPE 5.6%).
  • PWV and BM measurements had low mean absolute percent errors (9.7% and 0.15%, respectively).

Conclusions:

  • The Body Cardio scale provides accurate body mass and pulse-wave velocity measurements.
  • Its accuracy for fat mass and fat-free mass requires cautious interpretation.
  • Further research may be needed to refine body composition measurements, considering factors like gravity.

Keywords:
arterial healthbody composition comparisonmobile healthpulse transit time

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