Lean body mass estimation by bioelectrical impedance analysis: a four-site cross-validation study

This study validated further the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) method for body composition estimation. At four laboratories densitometrically-determined lean body mass (LBMd) was compared with BIA in 1567 adults (1069 men, 498 women) aged 17-62 y and with 3-56% body fat. Equations for predicting LBMd from resistance measured by BIA, height, weight, and age were obtained for the men and women. Application of each equation to the data from the other labs yielded small reductions in R values and small increases in SEEs. Some regression coefficients differed among labs but these differences were eliminated after adjustment for differences among labs in the subjects' body fatness. All data were pooled to derive fatness-specific equations for predicting LBMd: the resulting R values ranged from 0.907 to 0.952 with SEEs of 1.97-3.03 kg. These results confirm the validity of BIA and indicate that the precision of predicting LBM from impedance can be enhanced by sex- and fatness-specific equations.