Measuring body fat percentage using anthropometric skinfolds with different methods and investigating the outcomes of the methods: a case study of secondary school students in Lagos State

Abstract

Background and aim: Individuals of upcoming age might experience a rapid body growth which can include excessive body fat, and this must be put on check because body composition of every individual is as important as health, wellness and fitness. This study aim to estimate body fat percentage of secondary school students in Lagos State using two different methods and subject the difference to a significance test.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study of 640 students (302 Males and 338 Females) of voluntary participation was carried out in secondary schools in Lagos State. Multistage Sampling with Simple Random Sampling deployed at each stage. All body measurements follow the recommendation of International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK) and SLIMGUIDE^® calliper was used in taking the body skinfolds measurements for the study. The data was analysed for descriptive analysis and Body Fat Percentage. In addition, t-test statistics was performed on methods to check for significance and statistical significance set at p<0.05.

Results: The results shows variations in anthropometric indices of students in secondary schools across age and sex. Furthermore, it shows fluctuation in the body fat percentage based on age and sex. In addition there is a significance in the mean difference between the two methods used in measuring the body fat percentage.

Conclusion: This study have establish that there will be variation in estimates of body fat percentage for every different methods applied for an individual leading to different categorization of body fat. Therefore a need uniform and generally acceptable model is required.