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Validity of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis for Measuring Changes in Body Water and Percent Fat After Bariatric Surgery

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Abstract

Background

Few studies have validated bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) following bariatric surgery.

Methods

We examined agreement of BIA (Tanita 310) measures of total body water (TBW) and percent body fat (%fat) before (T0) and 12 months (T12) after bariatric surgery, and change between T0 and T12 with reference measures: deuterium oxide dilution for TBW and three-compartment model (3C) for %fat in a subset of participants (n = 50) of the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery-2.

Results

T0 to T12 median (IQR) change in deuterium TBW and 3C %fat was −6.4 L (6.4 L) and −14.8 % (13.4 %), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between deuterium and BIA determined TBW [median (IQR) difference: T0 −0.1 L (7.1 L), p = 0.75; T12 0.2 L (5.7 L), p = 0.35; Δ 0.35 L(6.3 L), p = 1.0]. Compared with 3C, BIA underestimated %fat at T0 and T12 [T0 −3.3 (5.6), p < 0.001; T12 −1.7 (5.2), p = 0.04] but not change [0.7 (8.2), p = 0.38]. Except for %fat change, Bland-Altman plots indicated no proportional bias. However, 95 % limits of agreement were wide (TBW 15–22 L, %fat 19–20 %).

Conclusions

BIA may be appropriate for evaluating group level response among severely obese adults. However, clinically meaningful differences in the accuracy of BIA between individuals exist.

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Acknowledgments

Dr Goodpaster and Dr Gallagher report grants from the National Institutes of Health during the conduct of the study. Dr Courcoulas reports other from J&J Ethicon Scientific, personal fees from J&J Ethicon Scientific, grants from the NIH-NIDDK, grants from Covidien, grants from EndoGastric Solutions, and grants from Nutrisystem, outside the submitted work. Dr Pomp reports personal fees from Covidien, and personal fees from WL Gore & Associates, outside the submitted work. Grant support RO1-DK-72507, P30-DK-26687, UL1 TR000040, and T32 DK091227 (E. Widen)

Conflict of Interest

Dr Widen, Dr Strain, Dr King, Mr Yu, Dr Lin, and Dr Thornton report no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Human Nutrition and Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, 1111 Amsterdam Avenue, Scrymser Bsmt, New York, NY, 10025, USA

    Elizabeth M. Widen

  2. Department of Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College, 525 East 68th Street, Starr 8, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Gladys Strain & Alfons Pomp

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, 517 Parran Hall, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA

    Wendy C. King

  4. New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, 1111 Amsterdam Avenue, Scrymser Bsmt, New York, NY, 10025, USA

    Wenwen Yu & John Thornton

  5. Center for Family and Community Medicine, Columbia University, New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, 1111 Amsterdam Avenue, Scrymser Bsmt, New York, NY, 10025, USA

    Susan Lin

  6. Diabetes and Obesity Research Center, Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute, 6400 Sanger Road, Orlando, FL, 32827, USA

    Bret Goodpaster

  7. Division of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 200 Lothrop St., Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Anita Courcoulas

  8. New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center, Body Composition Unit, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, Institute of Human Nutrition, Columbia University, 1111 Amsterdam Avenue, Scrymser Basement, New York, NY, 10025, USA

    Dympna Gallagher

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  1. Elizabeth M. Widen
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  2. Gladys Strain
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  3. Wendy C. King
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  5. Susan Lin
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  7. John Thornton
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  8. Anita Courcoulas
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  9. Alfons Pomp
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  10. Dympna Gallagher
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dympna Gallagher.

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Widen, E.M., Strain, G., King, W.C. et al. Validity of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis for Measuring Changes in Body Water and Percent Fat After Bariatric Surgery. OBES SURG 24, 847–854 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-014-1182-5

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