Document Type

Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Spring 2015

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Exercise Science

Committee Chair

Kelly Pritchett

Second Committee Member

Robert Pritchett

Third Committee Member

David L. Gee

Abstract

The United States military has two primary outcomes for fitness: combat readiness and physical appearance. In response to the Army Weight Control Program, height-weight tables were put forth to evaluate soldiers’ body fat percentages and screen for overweight individuals. However, few studies have examined the agreement in body composition estimates between the Army’s circumference measurements and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The purpose of this study was to quantify the agreement in body fat percentage estimates between the Army’s circumference measurements and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry in male Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) cadets. Male R.O.T.C. cadets (N = 23) between the ages of 18-24 from Central Washington University’s R.O.T.C. program were used as participants. Participants underwent taping according to Army protocol, and a DXA test to examine percentage body fat. Utilizing SPSS, a modified Bland-Altman (BA) plot was used to analyze the quality of agreement for continuous variables. There was a significant negative correlation between the difference in percentage body fat (taping – DXA) and the DXA scores (r = -0.722, p < 0.001), indicating poor agreement between the taping field test and the DXA laboratory criterion. The results depict little methodological agreement in percentage body fat between taping and the DXA. In contrast, when analyzing the categorical variables, overweight and over-fat, there is a moderate level of agreement between the height-weight tables and DXA methods as demonstrated by the 78.3% percent of agreement.

Additional Files
MitchellSignature.jpg (210 kB)
Signature Page

Language

English

Download

Share

COinS