Interrater reliability of skinfold fat measurements

Knowledge of interrater reliability is necessary when measurement techniques are performed on the same person by more than one therapist. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the interrater reliability for the measurement of skinfold fat. Using skinfold calipers, eight raters performed skinfold fat measurements at three anatomical sites on 10 male and 10 female subjects. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated for the individual skinfold site measurements, for the sums of the three measurements, and for the estimates of the percentage of body fat. The reliability coefficients ranged from .62 to .85 for the individual sites and from .79 to .91 for the sums of the three measurements and for the estimates of the percentage of body fat. Because of the minimal changes that usually occur with exercise programs, the interrater reliability of this measurement technique is not high enough to detect accurately changes over time.