The influence of physiologic variables and oral contraceptives on bioelectric impedance.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W C Chumlea.
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Ultrasonic and skinfold caliper measures of subcutaneous adipose tissue were taken in a sample of elderly men and women, 65 to 99 years of age with an A-mode Ithaco Body Composition Meter and a Holtain skinfold caliper. For most of the measurements, standard deviations for the ultrasonic measurements were three or more times larger than corresponding caliper measurements. Also, mean absolute interobserver errors for the ultrasonic measurements were considerably larger than those for skinfold calipers. At best, the interobserver reliability for the ultrasound machine was 68% while the poorest reliability for the skinfold caliper was 88%. In the form tested, the Ithaco Body Composition Meter is not as accurate for measuring subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness in the elderly as a Holtain skinfold caliper.
It is useful to develop indices of weight and stature, or body mass indices (BMIs), that are highly correlated with weight, are independent of stature, and accurately reflect body composition. The anthropometric data collected in the NHANES I (1971-74) and NHANES II (1976-80) US population samples were used to test the statistical characteristics and biologic correlations of various BMIs reported in the literature. BMIs that are independent of stature and still highly correlated to weight (r = 0.89-0.98) over all ages and distributions of fatness and leanness are W/S2 in men and both W/S and W/S1.5 in women. These BMIs are also highly correlated to measured and calculated estimates of body composition including subscapular skinfold thickness (r = 0.78-0.80), arm circumference (r = 0.83-0.89), and arm fat area (r = 0.71-0.83).
Weight divided by stature squared (W/S2) was computed from weight and stature, and midarm muscle area (MAMA) was computed from recumbent measures of midarm circumference and triceps skinfolds in a sample of 119 elderly white men and 150 elderly white women. Sex-specific means, standard deviations, and percentiles for W/S2 and MAMA are presented at 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, and 90 years of age. Women had significantly larger mean values for W/S2 at 90 years, but the men had significantly larger W/S2 values at 65 years and for MAMA values at all ages. The formula for MAMA was used because there is no systematic difference between values for corresponding standing and recumbent measurements. Weight divided by stature squared and MAMA are indirect indices of the degree of obesity and leanness, both of which are important health problems in elderly adults.
There are several types of sliding calipers, but most are expensive and not capable of measuring large body dimensions such as arm length or knee height in older children and adults. A new sliding caliper from Mediform can accurately measure lengths from 0.0 to 80.0 cm. This caliper is slightly more accurate than a Holtain sliding caliper, and its cost is low.
Stature is an important variable in several indices of nutritional status that are applicable to elderly persons. However, stature is difficult or impossible to measure in the nonambulatory elderly person, or its value may be spurious if measured in those elderly persons with excessive spinal curvature. Simple equations are presented for estimating the stature of elderly men from a recumbent measure of knee height and for elderly women from a recumbent measure of knee height and age. The 90 per cent error bounds for these equations for an individual are about plus or minus 6.0 cm. Knee height is highly correlated with stature.
Mean weights for 5-cm stature intervals for three groups of children with trisomy 21 were compared with those for a group of nonretarded children. Children with trisomy 21 had statistically significant larger mean weights beginning at statures of 105 to 110 cm for boys and at 95 to 100 cm for girls and at most larger statures analyzed. These statures were typical of 4- to 6-year-old children with trisomy 21. Children with trisomy 21 living in institutions tended to have larger mean weights for each stature interval than did those reared at home. Differences between the trisomy 21 and nonretarded groups were greater for girls than for boys.
Repeated measures of periosteal and endosteal widths of the left second metacarpal from two samples of radiographs were made independently with either a dial caliper or an electronic digitizer connected to a microcomputer. In addition, periosteal and endosteal bone widths of a common sample of radiographs were measured with dial calipers and the electronic digitizer. Dial calipers and an electronic digitizer are both very reliable, but intraobserver errors produced with the use of the digitizer are significantly less than those produced with the use of dial calipers. However, measurements made with the electronic digitizer are systematically larger than corresponding widths measured with dial calipers, but this difference is very small.
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In a sample of healthy adults (24 men, 21 women; 54 to 85 years of age) anthropometry was collected and body density measured by underwater weighing. Estimates of body fat were computed from body density. The men were significantly larger than the women in body size and have significantly less percent body fat and less subcutaneous fat on their arms and legs. There were no sex differences in measures of subcutaneous fat on the trunk or in estimates of total body fat. Chest and abdominal circumferences were the measurements most highly correlated with total and percent body fat in the men. In the women, abdominal circumference and subscapular skinfolds were highly correlated with percent body fat, as were subscapular and midaxillary skinfold with total body fat.
Data from 160 White children were used to analyze possible associations between iris pigmentation and AC pure-tone thresholds. Iris pigmentation was graded from iris color using glass models of eyes, and AC thresholds were obtained under carefully controlled conditions. Analyses of variance using two groupings of iris color grades showed no evidence of an association between iris color grade and AC thresholds. Furthermore, inspection of arrays of the actual glass eye models, in conjunction with the order of mean thresholds at each test frequency, did not indicate the presence of an association between iris color grades and thresholds. It was concluded that while iris pigmentation may be related to some aspects of hearing ability, it does not appear to be related to AC thresholds in children.
Serial AC threshold data recorded at 6-month intervals in 261 children aged 6 to 18 years have been analyzed for examination effects. After excluding effects of age, linear examination effects are shown by a multivariate analysis of variance for repeated measures and by a regression method. The findings indicate that hearing sensitivity improves with repeated examination. In the present data, the cumulative examination effects for eight examinations at 6-month intervals approximate 3 dB at 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz and 5 dB at 4 and 6 kHz. The effects are larger in the right ear than in the left ear, but there is no significant sex difference. The recorded serial data have been adjusted for the estimated examination effects prior to further analyses.
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Subcutaneous fat thicknesses measured in two longitudinal studies, the Denver Growth Study and the Melbourne Growth Study, were examined to determine 1) if one site of subcutaneous fat measurement is more representative than another of the body's subcutaneous fat layer, 2) if some measurements of subcutaneous fat from specific body areas are more representative of the subcutaneous fat layer than others, and 3) if there are sex and age differences in intersite relationships. Data from the Denver Study include skinfold thicknesses from 10 sites measured serially at annual ages from 4 to 39 yr and radiographic fat thickness measured at five sites at annual ages from 1 to 18 yr. In the Melbourne Study, five skinfold thicknesses were measured serially in children from 2 to 15 yr of age. Relatively low intersite communalities during the prepubertal years suggest a tendency in each sex for considerable site-to-site variation during this period. However, immediately before puberty and throughout adolescence, high communalities indicate that the thickness of subcutaneous fat at any site is highly related to thickness at all other sites. After puberty and into the mid-20's, there is a reoccurrence of greater site-to-site variability. This higher degree of variation continues into early middle age only in women, implying that more changes occur in their subcutaneous fat, that differentially affect various parts of the body, than in men.
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Adipocyte size and number, and total body fat were collected serially from boys and girls living in South-western Ohio. Sex-specific annual increments were computed across age for each of these variables. During adolescence, the boys had a near zero mean increment in total body fat, but the girls had a positive mean increment in total body fat. In both the boys and girls, there were negative mean increments in adipocyte size and positive mean increments in adipocyte number. Sex-specific age-to-age correlations are statistically significant for adipocyte number and total body fat but not for adipocyte size. These data indicate that increases in total body fat during adolescence may be due to increases in adipocyte number and that annual increments in adipocyte size may provide little information in regard to changes in total body fat.
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Measurements relevant to body fatness are made commonly in clinical settings. However, associations between these measurements and body fatness are poorly known and procedures are needed to facilitate the interpretation of these measurements. Consequently, data from 405 white children and adults aged 6 to 49 yr were used to calculate the correlations between selected anthropometric measurements and estimates of percentage body fat and total body fat. Comparisons among these correlations, for children and adults of each sex, lead to conclusions that the triceps skinfold is the best single indicator of percentage body fat in children and women; weight/stature is the best single indicator of total body fat in girls and adults. In men weight/stature is the best indicator of percentage body fat and in boys the subscapular skinfold is the best indicator of total body fat. Weight/stature can be obtained using a calculator or the nomogram provided. It is recommended that these measures be obtained when there is interest in body fatness and the data compared with percentiles from a nationally representative sample.