A comparison of body composition assessment methods in climbers: Which is better? Arias Téllez, María José Carrasco, Fernando España Romero, Vanesa Inostroza, Jorge Bustamante, Alejandro Solar-Altamirano, Ignacio Objective To compare body composition estimations of field estimation methods: Durnin & Womersley anthropometry (DW-ANT), bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and Deborah-Kerr anthropometry (DK-ANT) against dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in a male Chilean sport climbing sample. Methods 30 adult male climbers of different performance levels participated in the study. A DXA scan (Lunar Prodigy®) was used to determine fat mass, lean mass and total bone mineral content (BMC). Total muscle mass (MM, kg) was estimated through a validated prediction model. DW-ANT and BIA (“non-athletes” and “athletes” equations) were used to determinate fat mass percentage (FM %), while DK-ANT was utilized to estimate MM and BMC. Results A significant (p<0.01) inter-method difference was observed for all methods analyzed. When compared to DXA, DW-ANT and BIA underestimated FM% and DK-ANT overestimated MM and BMC (All p<0.01). The inter-method differences was lower for DW-ANT. Discussion We found that body composition estimation in climbers is highly method dependent. If DXA is not available, DW-ANT for FM% has a lower bias of estimation than BIA in young male Chilean climbers. For MM and BMC, further studies are needed to compare and estimate the DK-ANT bias level. For both methods, correction equations for specific climbing population should be considered. 2024-11-20T08:23:31Z 2024-11-20T08:23:31Z 2019-11-20 journal article Arias Téllez, M.J. et. al. PLoS ONE 14(11): e0224291. [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224291] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/97120 10.1371/journal.pone.0224291 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional PLOS ONE