A comparison between skinfold callipers and ultrasound imaging for assessing body composition in recreationally active students

The measurement of skinfold thickness by means of skinfold callipers (SC) is a widely accepted method to assess subcutaneous fat thickness and percentage body fat (%BF). Ultrasound imaging (USI) is a more recent technology that is becoming accessible for the same application. The objective of this study was to compare measurements recorded by SC and USI for the assessment of subcutaneous fat thickness in order to estimate %BF. Thirty adults volunteered for the study. Body mass, stature and subcutaneous fat thickness for seven sites were measured. Strong (p 0.05) difference between the %BF determined by the two methods (SC=19.5±6.4 %BF and USI = 19.0±6.3 %BF). However, levels of agreement indicated that the USI could over- or underestimate %BF by ±10%. This resulted in %BF estimation errors which are deemed too large from a clinical perspective. Additional studies are recommended to investigate the lack of agreement and bias highlighted between the two methods.