The BOD POD (BP) is a device used for determining body composition that is based on the air displacement plethysmography method. There has been little research conducted on the BP, and the main focus of the research has been on the reliability and validity of the BP. Another important area of research with the BP is the effect that different types of clothing have on the percent fat readings from the BP. To produce the most accurate results, the manufacturers recommend that subjects wear a Lycra swimsuit, however this recommendation may not be feasible for some individuals or testing sites to follow. The purpose of this study was to determine if a standard type of clothing would affect the percent fat readings from the BP in a consistent manner. Fifty subjects (25 men, 25 women) of varying ages (19 to 84 years of age) and body composition (3.4 to 53.2% fat) completed six trials (3 cotton and 3 nylon) in the BP during one testing session. With the exception of the clothing, all other recommendations by the manufacturer were followed. The comparison between the two clothing conditions was analyzed with a 2-way ANOVA (gender x clothing), frequency distribution, and the Bland-Altman method. The reliability of the measurements was analyzed by comparing the absolute differences between the three trials with cotton clothing and the three trials with nylon clothing, with intra-class correlation coefficients, and the Bland-Altman method. The results from the 2-way ANOVA revealed that the interaction effect of gender and amount of clothing was significant with the difference between nylon versus cotton being 1.1% for men and 4.8% for women. There was also a significant difference between body fat measurements with the cotton clothing (24.2 + 11.2%) and the nylon clothing (27.1 + 11.6%) when analyzed with all the subjects combined (men and women). Reliability analysis resulted in intra-class correlation coefficients of 0.9 and 0.95 within the cotton and nylon clothing trials, respectively. The comparison of the absolute differences between the cotton trials and the nylon trials showed a between-trial standard deviation of approximately 0.6 for cotton and 0.7 for nylon. In the comparison of nylon to cotton clothing results, there was a greater difference between the results for the women than for the men. The men had a lower, similar difference when comparing the two clothing conditions, whereas the women had a higher, difference that was not similar between subjects. In conclusion, this study showed that using either cotton or nylon shorts for men is acceptable, whereas for women more testing is needed to find another type of clothing to replace the Lycra swimsuit that results in consistent percent fat measurements. Also, the reliability of the percent fat readings obtained with both clothing conditions was very good. / School of Physical Education
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/186807 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Rettig, Natasha L. |
| Contributors | Kaminsky, Leonard A., 1955- |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iv, 65 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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