Publication:

The evaluation of a leg-to-leg bioimpedance device in the estimation of abdominal visceral fat in the elderly

Background: This study aimed to assess the accuracy of the standing leg-to-leg bioelectrical impedance

analyzer (LBIA) for estimating abdominal visceral fat with body mass index (BMI) scores ranging from

non-overweight to obese in elderly Chinese individuals.

Methods: The abdominal visceral fat area (VFA) at the lumbar level of L4-L5 was measured for 100 elderly

(age 68.5 ± 8.5 years) individuals using LBIA and computed tomography (CT) (respectively represented as

VFALBIA and VFACT). The VFA from LBIA were compared with those from CT under various BMI levels.

Results: The average BMI of the subjects was 24.3 ± 4.1 kg/m2 (58 non-overweight individuals had

BMIs < 25 kg/m2, and 42 overweight individuals had BMIs 25 kg/m2). The correlation coefficient (r) of

VFALBIA and VFACT was r ¼ 0.707 with a standard estimate of error (SEE) ¼ 21.96 cm2, and the limit of

agreement (LOA) was in the range of 67.46 to 58.48 cm2. The r value for non-overweight and overweight

was 0.707 (p < 0.001) and 0.356 (p < 0.001), SEE was 21.36 cm2 and 20.42 cm2 with LOA values

ranged between 68.40 to 46.00 cm2 and 61.79 to 71.19 cm2.

Conclusion: The LBIA results showed that each obese group all has large LOAwhen compared with the CT

reference values. The study suggests that the LBIA accuracy for estimating VFA is limited in the Chinese

elderly population.