Comparison of Techniques for Tracking Body Composition Changes Across a Basketball Season

International Journal of Exercise Science 11(4): 425-438, 2018. Body composition assessment has become an integral part of athletes’ training schedules. Questions remain concerning the accuracy of various methods to track body composition changes over a competitive year cycle. The purpose of this study was to compare various methods of tracking body composition across a college women’s basketball season. Fourteen Division II women (age = 20.1 ± 1.2 y) were measured prior to the season (T1), after pre-season conditioning (T2), at mid-season (T3), and at the end of the season (T4) using skinfolds (SKF), two bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) devices, and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). BIA devices were hand-to-hand (H-BIA) and foot-to-foot (F-BIA) single-frequency models. SKF were used to estimate %fat using four prediction equations. A method x trial factorial ANOVA on %fat with repeated measures over the second factor indicated that all methods except the Durnin-Womersley SKF equation were significantly lower than DXA. Across trials, DXA %fat at T1 (25.3 ± 4.7%) was significantly higher than at T2 (24.3 ± 4.6%), T3 (24.6 ± 4.6%), and T4 (24.4 ± 5.1%). Agreement between DXA and the other methods were moderate (r = 0.48 – 0.86). Rank-order correlations of DXA with the other methods to compare team order indicated H-BIA (rho = 0.67 – 0.78) and F-BIA (rho = 0.62 – 0.77) provided comparable agreement, with SKF methods having lower agreement for team order (rho = 0.46 – 0.73). Compared to the DXA standard, a foot-to-foot BIA device may provide adequate but significantly lower relative tracking of %fat across a women’s basketball season