COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BODY FAT PERCENTAGE BETWEEN MALE FOOTBALL AND HOCKEY PLAYERS AGED 17–25 YEARS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: The body composition, specifically BF%, plays an important role in determining the physical performance of a person in a particular sport along with sport-specific physiological adaptations. Football and Hockey belong to the category of team sports that have varying body composition requirements due to different positions and training programs. These sports are popular globally, but still there is no available data for comparison in South Asia. This study aimed to compare BF%, body mass index (BMI), height, weight, fat mass (FM), lean body mass (LBM), and training characteristics between male football and hockey players aged 17–25 years, and to identify predictors of BF% in this cohort. Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study design was employed. One hundred male football players and 100 male hockey players (N = 200; age range 17–25 years) were recruited through purposive sampling. Anthropometric measurements including height, weight, BMI, and BF% (via established skinfold protocols) were recorded. Independent samples t-tests and Mann–Whitney U tests were applied depending on normality (Shapiro–Wilk). Cohen's d and Hedges' g quantified effect sizes. Multiple linear regression (MLR) identified predictors of BF%. Statistical significance was set at α = 0.05. All analyses were conducted in Python (v3.12) with SciPy, Statsmodels, and Pandas libraries. Results: Football players demonstrated significantly lower BF% (11.43 ± 2.07%) compared to hockey players (14.15 ± 2.20%; t(198) = −9.01, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = −1.27, 95% CI [−1.58, −0.97] — a large effect). Football players were significantly taller (177.18 ± 5.10 vs 173.77 ± 4.63 cm; p < 0.001, d = 0.70), lighter (70.52 ± 6.37 vs 74.37 ± 7.01 kg; p < 0.001, d = −0.58), had lower BMI (22.52 ± 2.42 vs 24.68 ± 2.69 kg/m²; p < 0.001, d = −0.84), and lower fat mass (8.05 ± 1.60 vs 10.52 ± 1.90 kg; p < 0.001, d = −1.41). Lean body mass and age did not differ significantly (p > 0.05). Football players trained significantly more hours per week (11.17 ± 1.85 vs 9.92 ± 1.95 hrs; p < 0.001, d = 0.65). In MLR, sport type (β = 0.561, p < 0.001) was the sole significant independent predictor of BF% (Adjusted R² = 0.283). Conclusion: The BF% and fat mass in male footballers were lower by a considerable margin with an effect size that was very large, probably owing to the higher intermittent demands and workload associated with playing football. The results have significant applications in the context of benchmarking body composition and nutrition in South Asian male athletes.