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Standards of triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses for 1293 Caucasian newborn infants of gestational ages 37-42 weeks, and of 0-25 kg birthweight intervals between 2-25 and 4-5 kg are presented. Female infants had a greater skinfold thickness than males, and the subscapular skinfold was greater than the triceps. The skinfold thickness in both males and females declined after 40 weeks of gestation.
The effect of an intensive physical training program on body weight and skinfold thickness was compared in subjects who had initially small (group S), medium (group M) and large (group L) skinfold thickness representing mostly thin, normal and obese recruits, respectively. Weight and skinfold thickness at three sites (triceps, subscapula and abdomen) were measured at the beginning and end of a 6 week intensive military training program. Subjects were on an ad-lib diet. Seventy-one percent of the subjects in group S increased their body weight and 60% increased the sum of their skinfold thickness (SSFT) at the three sites during the training period. These increases were significant at P less than 0.001 and P less than 0.01 for weight and SSFT respectively. In groups M and L the trends for changes in SSFT were in the opposite direction, with 68% of the former and 98% of the latter showing decreases in SSFT. The mean decreases were significant at P less than 0.02 and P less than 0.001 for groups M and L respectively. While the subjects in group L lost weight significantly (P less than 0.001), those in group M reduced their weight only slightly. Our data indicate that changes in body fat, indicated by changes in SSFT, during several weeks of physical activity are not unidirectional and are related to the initial skinfold thickness.
Skinfold thickness, height, and weight measurements were recorded from 1964 through 1970 for more than 1,000 adult Eskimos who resided in the Central and Eastern Canadian Arctic. Among the men and women of all age groups, 70 to 83% had a low ponderal index (PI less than 12.5). Nutrition Canada reported similar rates in 200 adult Eskimos and therefore considered Eskimos, especially Eskimo men, as more obese than other Canadians. Thin skinfolds were found in most Eskimo men, including those with a low PI. The usefulness of the PI or other height/weight indices for appraisal of body fatness and prevalence of obesity in different population groups is questioned. Marked sex differences were found in the ratio of the skinfold thickness over the triceps to the mean thickness of two sites on the trunk (subscapular and suprailiac). Thus, use of the arm plus trunk sites provides important information about subcutaneous fat distribution, and comparisons of prevalence of obesity in different sex and age groups based only on arm skinfold measurements may be inappropriate.
Body build was assessed by measuring supinator and triceps skinfold thickness of 66 elderly patients in a long-stay hospital. Nursing staff made seven day records of the food intakes for the subjects. These were used to estimate calorie intakes. There was no relationship between energy intake and skinfold thickness. Reduced skinfold thicknesses were more common in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis or a previous fractured neck of femur than in those with cerebro-vascular disease or any other disorder. The findings suggest that the body build of long-stay patients is usually determined by their energy intake prior to admission. The feeding patterns of patients, once they are admitted, have little effect on body build.
The skinfold thickness on the dorsum of the right hand over the second metacarpal was measured with Harpenden calipers in 276 women and 152 men aged 65 and over living at home. Mean values were higher in men than women and declined with age in both sexes. Skinfold thickness was related to body size, as estimated from lean body mass, but was unrelated to the presence of osteoporosis as assessed from bone mass of the second metacarpal or the presence of vertebral fractures. The skinfold thickness was low in those subjects who had senile purpura and also in a small group of subjects on long-term steroid therapy.
To plan prospective studies of obesity and hypertension, we measured skinfold thickness, weight, blood pressure, and protein fractions in 920 children who were divided according to age, sex, and race. Correlations between measurements were calculated within each of these groups. Children aged 10, 11, and 12 years had direct correlations between diastolic blood pressure and serum albumin level, but inverse correlations between diastolic blood pressure and alpha-globulin level as well as inverse correlations with alpha-globulin level. These correlations did not occur in similar children aged 8, 9, and 10. Although diastolic blood pressure correlated with skinfold thickness in all groups, there was no correlation between skinfold thickness and serum protein levels.
A statistical comparison is presented between height, weight, and subscapular and triceps skinfold thickness for age of Indian and White schoolchildren. It was found that (i) although a high degree of correlation existed between height and weight for age of White children, this was not true for Indian children; (ii) for both White and Indian children of both sexes inconsistent variations occurred between both height and weight and skinfold thickness; (iii) despite extremely low heights and weights observed for Indian children, which could be interpreted as depicting chronic undernutrition, the skinfold thicknesses of the latter children were close to normal as judged by conventional standards: the subscapular skinfold thicknesses in Indian girls actually exceeded the conventionally accepted normal standard values. It is concluded that in the indirect assessment of nutritional status of Indian subjects, anthropometric variables should be used with caution. Finally, it is proposed that further anthropometric and individual energy balance studies be conducted on a cross-section of various socio-economic, age and sex groups of the Indian population in an attempt to establish the basis for the described anomalies.
Triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses were measured in 222 pairs of like-sex twins (78 monozygotic and 144 dizygotic) aged 3-15 years. Log transformations of the measurements were standardized for age and sex and the results used to estimate heritability--that is, the proportion of total variation determined by genetic factors. The overall contribution of non-genetic familial effects was small. There were appreciable differences in heritability between limb and trunk fat and between the sexes and at different ages. Over the age of 10 heritability was high for both sites in boys and girls. In younger children environmental factors contributed more to the variation.
Recently in Japan, it has been observed that the physical dimensions of schoolboys and schoolgirls, specifically stature and body weight, are increasing year by year, and that spurts in increase in dimensions tend to happen earlier. The phenomena of accelerated growth are resulting in more obesity and leanness in childhood. Skinfold thickness, body density, body fat and lean body mass estimated from body density, creatinine excretion in the 24-hour urine, and muscular volume calculated from creatinine excretion were studied in obese children and normal children of 10 and 11 years of age, and the difference in the skinfold thickness by sec, age, and district in school children in five districts in southern Kyushu (1,002 boys and 931 girls) were examined. Reference was then made to the skinfold thickness of some of experienced and new sumo wrestlers of the Japan Professional Sumo Association whose nutrition intake is high and who show high ratios of diabetes mellitus and cardiac diseases. The results of the present study were also compared with the results of skinfold thickness measurements of children in Ghana and Kenya and those of the skinfold thickness and body composition measurements of Czechoslovakian children.
A total of 699 inhabitants of Ljubljana (269 men and 430 women) aged over 60 years were examined. Weight and height were measured, the body mass index (g/cm2) was summed, skinfold thickness on 14 sites (biceps, abdomen /on the right side/, subscapular, suprailiacal, thigh, calf, lower arm /on the right and left side/) and 8 body circumferences (chest, abdomen, upper arm, thigh and calf /on the right and left side/) were determined. Fasting venous blood was taken for determining plasma glucose, total plasma cholesterol, triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol. Plasma cholesterol, both in men and women, is not associated with predictors of fatness - skinfold thicknesses and body circumferences. There are statistically significant correlations between plasma triglycerides and predictors of fatness, particularly in the body, both in men and women. The correlation of plasma HDL-cholesterol is inversely proportional to the predictors of fatness (circumferences and skinfold thicknesses) at the central and peripheral sites of the subcutaneous fat, in both sexes. Relations between plasma glucose and parameters of fatness (body circumferences) are weak and less frequent. They are noticed only in the female population. Body circumferences, predictors of fatness and the distribution of body fat can be as good factors as skinfold thicknesses in the population aged over 60 years.
From 1974--1977 anthropometric investigations were performed in 173 healthy infants during the first year of life. Weight, height, skinfold thickness, head-, chest-, and abdominal circumferences had been measured as parameters for growth. Birth weight increased ceased threefold on 12th month in males only. There is no difference in the increase of height in males and females. Width of skinfold thickness increases rapidly until month 5, except abdominal skinfold. A radual decrease follows thereafter. The difference in decreasing velocity of skinfold thickness indicates changes in distribution of subcutaneous fat tissue during infancy. Growth of head-, chest-, and abdominal circumferences of males are similar to that of females.
Body composition of 24 rural Beninese women was assessed in a pre- and a postharvest season by using skinfold-thickness measurements, bioelectrical-impedance analysis (BIA), and deuterium oxide (D2O) dilution. Fat mass assessed by D2O dilution was 12.3 +/- 3.3 kg; by skinfold-thickness measurements, 13.8 +/- 3.3 kg; and by BIA, 14.1 +/- 2.9 kg. Fat mass assessed by D2O was significantly lower (P less than 0.05) than fat mass assessed by the other two methods. Body weight in the postharvest season was 0.8 +/- 1.6 kg higher (P less than 0.05) than during the preharvest season. All three methods demonstrated that there were no significant changes in fat mass but that fat-free mass increased significantly (P less than 0.05) from pre- to postharvest season.
In a group of 3,644 healthy controls aged 0 to 19 years and 273 obese children the reference values for triceps and subscapular skin fold thckness were established. The technique of measurement of skinfold thickness is described. This is simple and may be used in routine practice as a measurement of the adipose cell mass. However, measurement of only the subscapular skin fold thickness of which the values are less scattered than triceps, was sufficient to measure the development of adipose tissue in children up to and including puberty. Those subjects whose skinfold thickness is above the upper limit of normal are considered to be obese.
The absorption of high and low molecular fractions of heparin from the subcutaneous compartment was evaluated in eight healthy males. They were given an intravenous infusion of 4000 U calcium heparin in 4 hours and on another occasion a subcutaneous injection of 12,500 U calcium heparin (washout period of 1 week). Anticoagulation was monitored by anti-Xa, antithrombin activity, and activated partial thromboplastin time. To evaluate factors that might influence absorption, body weight, body fat, and abdominal skinfold thickness were recorded. There was a pronounced inter-individual variability in absorption but the absorption of the two fractions of heparin was similar. The highly variable absorption was related to the abdominal skinfold thickness, and this could have implications for therapeutic and prophylactic heparin regimens.
The plasma insulin response to a standard arginine stimulation test was studied in 247 children and adolescents (177 males and 70 females) with constitutional growth retardation as compared with the response obtained in a matched group of 42 normal subjects and a group of 57 obese subjects. When the insulin response was related to pubertal ratings in the children and adolescents with growth retardation, it was found that the mean fasting levels and mean peak response both rose with the progression of puberty. This tendency was more pronounced in the females. When the insulin response was related to the degree of adiposity as measured by the degree of subscapular skinfold thickness, it was found that the greater the adiposity, the greater was the mean response, with the females showing higher levels than the males in each group. Even when the response in the two sexes was compared in subjects of a similar age and skinfold thickness, the females had a higher mean peak insulin response than did the males.
A formula is given, allowing a value for total body fat to be calculated from skinfold thickness measurements at two sites (subscapular and triceps), in conjunction with nine body dimensions. For newborn infants total body fat so calculated accorded satisfactorily with published data from cadaver analyses. The formula has been tentatively applied to infants up to the age of 40 weeks, and to preterm infants. The difference between the growth of male and female infants was analysed in a series of 27 normal infants; the greater growth of musculoskeletal tissue in the male contrasted with the relatively greater growth of fat tissue in the female.
We measured body weight, height, and skinfold thickness (SFT) at ulnar, triceps, subscapular and suprailiac regions in 1,656 Japanese children aged 3-11 years. Means of SFT in boys and girls with normal weight exhibited similar changes with age to Caucasian children. However, nadirs of SFT were observed 1 year earlier and means at 11 years were slightly higher in Japanese. Correlation coefficients between SFT and excess weight (EW) were high in boys and girls when EW was more than 10%. Some children with EW of more than 10% had abnormal SFT. Skinfolds in all children with EW of 30% or more were beyond the normal limits. In this study, normal ranges of SFT in Japanese children are demonstrated and their racial characteristics are compared to Caucasians. It is suggested that children with EW of 10-30% are heterogenous and determination of fat volume is essential to confirm the diagnosis of obesity in these subjects.
Application of profile analysis (4) to skinfold thickness (tricipital ; subscapular) experimentally shows that when data are collected under strict control of the measuring technique, the fluctuations ascribale to observers, to left or right body sides, and to replications may be almost entirely eliminated.