A clinician or researcher must consider the practical aspects of their assessment needs and weigh this against the limitations of the methods ( 27). However, body composition assessment methods vary in their cost, accuracy, strengths, and limitations. Knowledge of percent body fat (%BF) is useful in health and fitness assessments and in predicting athletic performance. We recommend using the SUM3 to estimate %BF. Compared to DXA, Tanita, Omron, and SUM3, we would not recommend using the digital or self-administered skinfold calipers for estimating %BF in college-aged men and women with similar body composition as the men and women in this study. However, the self-administered skinfold caliper had poor individual predictive accuracy for the men (LOA = ± 8.6%BF) and the women (LOA = ± 7.5%BF) when compared to the other field methods. The digital skinfold caliper had good individual predictive accuracy in the men (95% limits of agreement = ± 6.4%BF) and women (95% LOA = ± 4.9%BF) when compared to the other field methods. The digital and self-administered skinfold calipers had the poorest group predictive accuracy for the men and women (total error ranged from 7.9 to 10.9%BF) when compared to the other field methods. Fifty college students (25 men and 25 women) from a kinesiology department who ranged in fitness levels volunteered to have %BF measured by the digital and self-administered skinfold calipers, Omron, Tanita, and SUM3. A secondary purpose of this study was to compare the validity of these calipers to the validity of arm-to-arm bioempedance analysis (BIA) (Omron, Shelton, Connecticut, U.S.A.), leg-to-leg BIA (Tanita, Arlington Heights, Illinois, U.S.A.), and 3-site skinfold equations (SUM3) using DXA as a reference method. The primary purpose of this study was to validate these calipers using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as a reference method in a sample of college-aged men and women. There are 2 commercially available skinfold calipers, 1 digital and the other self-administered, that claim to accurately predict %BF.

J Strength Cond Res 24(12): 3448-3456, 2010-There is a need for cost-effective techniques that accurately predict percent body fat (%BF) and require little skill to administer. Validity of 2 skinfold calipers in estimating percent body fat of college-aged men and women.

Skinfold caliper