The skinfold thickness is a much-used measurement for monitoring adiposity in a wide range of medical, health, occupational and sport science disciplines. Misconceptions abound, however, in its use, particularly that of purportedly predicting body 'fat' as opposed to 'adipose tissue'. To obtain data to investigate body composition and the extent to which anthropometry can be justifiably used to...

The present study investigated the validity, reliability, objectivity, and practicability of methods with skinfold caliper (SF), ultrasound (US), bioelectrical impedance (BI), and sulfur hexafluoride (SHD) using identical subjects, and evaluated comprehensive usefulness by comparing selected methods or equations. In examining validity, underwater weighing (UW) was employed to obtain the criteri...

In 1971 triceps skinfold thickness was measured in a sample of 6-14-year-old children attending school in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. The sample consisted of 1,243 boys and 1,183 girls. In both boys and girls triceps skinfolds tended to increase with age, this being most marked in the girls. If a 25 mm triceps skinfold is taken as indicating obesity, then 32-4% of the 14-year old girls and 3-6%...

In a study of 256 families, among whom were twins, midparent-adult son correlations for height, weight, and combined skinfold measurements were 0.67, 0.47, and 0.23 respectively. The corresponding midparent-adult daughter correlations were 0.63, 0.42, and 0.24. Midparent-growing offspring correlations were highest for height, less for weight, and insignificant for combined skinfold measurements...

Triceps skinfold thickness and body weight measures were obtained for 44 female and 40 male mentally retarded adults participating in a sheltered workshop setting. Subjects' relative weights and skinfold thicknesses were found to correlate reasonably well for females and males, rs = .88 and .59, respectively. Use of only height and weight tables for determining the presence of obesity, however,...

A total sample of 304 athletes was selected from first class clubs related to four common sports (football, handball, volleyball and basketball) and compared with 53 non-athlete adults. Weight, height, mid-arm circumference and skinfold thickness were measured to assess their body composition. The findings revealed that there were differences in body composition among athletes according to the ...

The objective is to select the best anthropometric measurements to characterize a healthy elderly population. For that, 1030 healthy elderly persons (508 men and 522 women) living independently or in an institution (in both public and private homes) were enrolled for this population-based, cross-sectional study conducted from February 2004 to May 2005. Anthropometric measurements were made by t...

There are several ways to measure fatness and obesity, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The primary measure for tracking the prevalence of obesity has historically been body mass index (BMI). This paper compares long-run trends in the prevalence of obesity when obesity is defined using skinfold thickness instead of BMI, using data from the full series of U.S. National Health Examinat...