Confounding Factors and Their Mitigation in Measurements of Bioelectrical Impedance at the Skin Interface

Bioelectrical impedance measurement is a technique used in engineering (development of different wearable biosensors with diverse applications), in the medical field (health monitoring and diagnosis), and in biomedical research (fundamental and applied).

despite its long history and existence of standardized techniques, measurement results can often be unreliable and plagued by high variance (intra- and inter-subject measurement), which can distort the correct interpretation of the results.

we have reviewed bioelectrical impedance measurements from both engineering and medical research teams over the past 60 years, with a focus on factors that might influence the skin-electrode interface.

We identified 40 confounding factors in 10 different categories, some of which are sometimes overlooked in applied research, and we propose mitigation strategies for each one.