Accurate assessment of body composition is essential for clinical and public health applications. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a non-invasive and scalable method that provides both estimated body composition and physiologically meaningful raw parameters, such as resistance, reactance, and phase angle. However, its broader clinical and research use is limited by device heterogeneity, lack of standardization, fragmented datasets, and the absence of robust reference values across age, sex, and ethnicity. The BIA International Database (BIAID) initiative addresses these limitations by developing a large, FAIR-compliant international database to harmonize BIA data, advance the use of raw BIA parameters, and establish normative reference values to improve comparability and clinical translation.
Submission Portal
Submit your data and collaborate with the BIAID network. For more information read Step 3
Access the Submission PortalCurrently, the database includes over 320,000 measurements from individuals aged 11 months to 102 years, making BIAID one of the largest global resources for BIA-based body composition research. Hosted at the Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, BIAID operates under strict ethical approval, GDPR compliance, and supervised access, fostering high-quality research and international collaboration.
Minimal and associated data includes: Age, sex, anthropometry (body mass and height), Resistance (R), Reactance (Xc), Impedance (Z), and Phase Angle (PhA), country, year of data collection, device characteristic (single-frequency-BIA, multifrequency-BIA, spectroscopy-BIS), ethnicity, and health status. To see the desirable additional data and the specific guidelines for preparing the database, please read Step 3. The data will be hosted at the Exercise and Health Laboratory of the Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, by using an online portal (Step 3). We invite potential collaborators to contribute to the BIA International Database. To ensure scientific standardization and legal compliance, please follow this protocol: Preparation: Download and review “The BIA International Database Guide”. Datasets must be formatted according to “The BIA International Database Template”. Online Submission: Use the link “SUBMISSION PORTAL” to complete the following sections: After finalizing the process, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. All included datasets will be part of projects approved by their ethics committee. The authors should send the code, institution, and date of the ethics committee form when submitting their database for approval. After confirmation of inclusion by the management group, each individual in each database will be given a new code to further guarantee confidentiality and privacy. All received data will be converted into password-protected files and stored at the Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon server, with access limited to the chairman of the management group, Analiza M Silva, or members designated by the group. Access to the whole or part of the database will be supervised, as authors aiming to use the database must first obtain approval from the management group, providing their intended analysis and assuring that rules of privacy and data protection will be complied with, as described in Step 6. After following these steps, a separate password will be generated to protect the document, including the selected columns of interest for the proposed analysis. This document will also be password-protected, only acknowledged by the chairman of the management group or members designated by the group, namely the authors of the proposed analysis. A detailed record will be created to monitor this data-sharing process. The received databases have already codified data without any personal identifier, making the data untraceable to the corresponding individual, and complying with the GDPR key requirements. Before submitting a proposal, please check the current Planned/approved proposals and the current publications from the BIA International Database. A list of published papers and/or approved analyses will be continuously added to the website. Several steps are required to get access and to perform an analysis in the database, namely: i) download and fill out a form (“The BIA International Database Publications Policy”) agreeing up front to the publication policy; ii) create an analysis proposal (“The BIA International Database Proposed Analysis”), providing a succinct summary, including the variables from the dataset that will be required, the population of interest, and a brief timeframe for data analysis; iii) submit your proposed analysis to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; iv) the management group will discuss the idea and will provide feedback within 4 weeks. If the management group provides a favorable response, a file with the approved data will be provided to perform data analysis and manuscript preparation. Individuals submitting data will be acknowledged as authors if they agree on publications from the database that use the data they contributed, allowing up to 2 authors per contributed dataset. Manuscripts using the database must adhere to several rules that have been agreed upon by the management group, including the approval of draft manuscripts by the management group to ensure the publication policies are followed. Also, for those who contributed the data for the specific analysis, the possibility of accepting or declining the role as co-authors is given at least 3 weeks before the manuscript submission (“The BIA International Database Publications Policy”). Please check the following Figure to understand the process of “Data Sharing” and “Data Analysis”. Step 1: Building a large database of BIA raw and derived parameters
Step 2: Data Management
Step 3: Data Submission and Collaboration
Step 4: Data Security
Step 5: Data Access
Step 6: Publication Policy
