Reprodutibilidade da medida da composição corporal por bioimpedância elétrica

Abstract

Technology in healthcare is expanding progressively and with promising possibilities, being applied in everyday life in clinics, offices and hospitals, thus helping to improve patient care. Bioelectrical impedance (BIA), for example , is a device that is widely used to inform about the patient’s body composition, helping the health professional to make decisions in the process of disease prevention/treatment in addition to the ease of handling, application, and the low cost of this method, it is necessary for the professional to have good knowledge both in handling the device and in the guidance that should be given to the patient before the examination is carried out, in order to minimize any errors. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to show the determining factors in the reproducibility of the body composition assessment by BIA in relation to sex and the follow-up of previous protocols for the examination. Therefore, it was divided into two chapters. Chapter 1 is a literature review article that aimed to describe the use of BIA, discuss the different types of device, present its central idea, its main methodological aspects and the validity of its measurements. Thus, it was observed that the BIA devices, in addition to categorizing themselves either by the number of electrodes used, by the region submitted to evaluation or by the frequency used, function in the opposition of resistance and reactance. Some clinical require more judicious care from the evaluator in the interpretation of the results to reduce possible errors. Chapter 2 sought to determine the reproducibility of the body composition measurement by BIA, as well as to compare the results between genders and different methodological conditions (following and not following the previous recommendations for executing the test). It was concluded that, regardless of previous preparation or not between genders for the test, the BIA had a good reliability for the ICC Values (interclass mobility coefficient), however, without respecting the previous recommendations for carrying out the exam, the reproducibility for the CV (coefficient of variation) was statistically not significant and with greater variations in the women. Therefore, it is recommended to follow the recommendations to increase reliability and reproducibility for almost all body composition variables.