Body Composition Comparison of Upper- and Underclass Reserve Officers' Training Corps Cadets.

Body composition (BC) measurements are used to determine qualification for enlistment and to ensure active members are meeting standards. Although there is extensive research on BC in active-duty military, very few have examined ROTC cadets. The purpose of this study was to identify and quantify differences in BC between freshman/sophomore [underclass (UND)] and junior/senior [upperclass (UPP)] ROTC cadets by using bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (BIS). UND ( = 21) and UPP ( = 15) Air Force ROTC cadets volunteered for this study. BIS was used to measure fat mass percentage (FM%), fat free mass percentage (FFM%), total body water percentage (TBW%), extracellular fluid percentage (ECF%), and intracellular fluid percentage (ICF%). Separate one-way ANOVAs were run between UND and UPP for all dependent variables with a Bonferroni correction factor. Additionally, a Pearson correlation between abdominal circumference (AC) and FM% was conducted. No significant differences were observed between the UND and UPP groups' BMI. However, significant differences were observed for ECF%, ICF%, TBW%, FFM%, and FM% in which the UPP had a higher TBW%, ICF%, FFM%, and a lower ECF% and FM% compared to the UND. This study observed significant differences in BC across class ranks in ROTC cadets. Findings from this study suggest that due to an increased exposure to ROTC training, UPP cadets have a more ideal body composition (FFM% and FM%) when compared to UND cadets.