Did you know that callipers are more suitable for pacemakers, pregnant, kidney failure and amputees patients? So how can health professionals assess these special patients?

Not all methods available for assessing body composition can be used for all types of patients. It is known that each individual is different, and some patients have specific health conditions. For these cases, some methods of assessing body composition are not recommended.

Recently, the bioimpedance method has been widely used in the chamber and consists of passing an electrical current through the patient's body. Thus, it becomes inappropriate for pregnant women, patients with pacemakers, kidney failure, amputees, people with edema, osteoporosis, among others.

For these special cases, the calliper is an excellent evaluation tool: practical, portable and reliable. Without forggeting to mention that the body assessment with this tool doesn't require prior preparation by the patient, which is a plus advantage.

References:

Kannieappan LM, Deussen AR, Grivell RM, Yelland L, Dood JM. Developing a tool for obtaining maternal skinfold thickness measurements and assessing inter-observer variability among pregnant women who are overweight and obese. BMC pregnancy and childbirth. 2013; 13. 42. 10.1186/1471-2393-13-42.

Ningthoujam R, Singh TI, Nongthombam B. Underlying principles and theories of common body composition techniques: a systematic review. Int J Curr Res., 2016 March, 8 (03): 27939-27945.