Body Composition A COMPARISON OF BIOELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE AND NEAR-INFRARED INTERACTANCE TO SKINFOLD MEASURES IN DETERMINING MINIMUM WRESTLING WEIGHT IN COLLEGIATE WRESTLERS

A COMPARISON OF BIOELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE AND NEAR-INFRARED INTERACTANCE TO SKINFOLD MEASURES IN DETERMINING MINIMUM WRESTLING WEIGHT IN COLLEGIATE WRESTLERS. Donald C. Diboll and Jeffrey K. Moffit. JEPonline. 2003;6(2):26-36. The NCAA Wrestling Weight Certification Program (WWCP) requires minimum wrestling weight (MWW) at 5% body fat (euhydrated condition) be determined for all athletes. Only hydrodensitometry and skinfold measures (SF) are accepted by the WWCP to determine MWW, although other methods are potentially less costly and/or require less technical skill to perform. The purpose of this study was to determine if whole-body bioelectrical impedance (BIA) and near-infrared interactance (NIR) methods are comparable to the SF method in estimating MWWs. Twenty-five male division I collegiate wrestlers had MWWs determined under hydrated conditions via BIA (RJL Systems) using three different equations, NIR (Futrex), and the 3-site SF method accepted by the WWCP (criterion). Pearson correlations (r) indicate significant relationships between SF and both BIA (all equations) and NIR (r ranged from 0.978 to 0.921; p<0.001), and standard errors of the estimates (SEE) were small (best BIA equation SEE=2.1 kg; NIR SEE=2.8 kg). However, limits of agreement (Bland-Altman plots) and total error measures, considered to be more appropriate for evaluating these comparisons, suggest both BIA and NIR MWWs, utilizing the equipment and prediction equations in this study, do not compare closely enough to SF MWWs to be considered suitable methods for the WWCP.