Relationships between body mass index and skinfold thickness of exercised and sedentary young adults

Abstract

Both body mass index (BMI) and sum of skinfold thickness (SST) are interchangeably used in the assessment of body composition in young adults. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between BMI and SST in young adults depending regular physical activity. The data were collected from a total of 611 young participants including 500 males and 111 females aged 18 to 21 years old students with cross sectional design. The volunteer participants of this study were divided into 4 groups as exercised males (EM), sedentary males (SM), exercised females (EF) and sedentary females (SF), respectively. SST measurements were taken by the Holtain skinfold caliper. Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was used to determine the relationships between due to correlational design of this study. This study showed that the significant relationship between BMI and SST in females was higher than in males depending on exercise participation. The correlations between BMI and SST were highest for EF, second highest for SM and the lowest for EM and SF. In general, males appear to have twice the average SST of females. In conclusion, the relationship between BMI and SST varies depending on the height and body weight, gender and participation in physical activity. In the absence of valid and complex method, the body fat percentage can be strongly estimated by BMI in exercised females than sedentary counterparts.

Keywords: Body mass index, sum of skinfold thickness, regular physical activity, age, gender.

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