Concordance between two equations to estimate the percentage of body fat in competitive college athletes

Introduction: Nowadays, some equations to estimate the percentage of body fat (%BF) in athletes are those where 4 and 6 subcutaneous folds are used and, according to the equation, it will represent an important time in the execution of measurements accelerating or not this process and having the possibility of measuring more or less subjects. It is thus intended as an objective to know the level of concordance between the %BF through two anthropometric equations specific to athletes: Faulkner (1968) and Carter (1982). Material and Methods: 147 athletes from different disciplines were selected measuring 6 skin folds. For the statistical analyzes, the Bland-Altman methods and the intraclass correlation method were used for the level of concordance, the Cohen Kappa test for the degree of agreement between categories and the student t. Results: In women the averages of the models used did not show statistically significant differences (P = 0.28) more, in men if there were differences (p <0.000), the women obtained a very good level of concordance and a value of 1.22 bias; while in the group of men there is a good concordance and a value of bias of 3.39 and, according to the Kappa analysis, a high and very high degree of agreement between categories of women is shown, the opposite happening in the group of men, where very low to moderate Kappa indices have been obtained. Conclusions: Both models can be interchangeable in women, for men it is recommended to use each equation within the specific group from which it was developed.