Elbow breadth as a measure of frame size for US males and females.

Correlation coefficients of weight, bitrochanteric and elbow breadth to the log-transformed skinfold thickness and age were calculated using 16,494 adult Black and white samples derived from the data sets of the US Health and Nutritional Examination Survey I of 1971 to 1974. Among the variables, elbow breadth exhibited the lowest correlation with skinfold thickness and changes little with age. The analysis shows that elbow breadth can be used as an indicator of frame size. Based on sex-, race-, and age-specific percentiles of elbow breadth the subjects were classified into categories of small, medium, and large frame size. It is suggested that these categories be used for the evaluation of weight for height and frame size.

Relative merits of old and new indices of body mass with reference to skinfold thickness.

Correlation coefficients among the various commonly used indices of body mass and measures of skinfold thickness were calculated using 16,459 adult Black of white samples derived from the data sets of the US Health and Nutritional Examination Survey I of 1971 to 1974. Compared to weight and weight-height cube ratio, weight-height square ratio, and weight-heightp ratio exhibit the highest correlation with skinfold thickness. Furthermore, weight-height square ratio and weight-heightp ratio showed the same amount of correlation with skinfolds. Therefore, weight-heightp ratio is not the best indicator of adiposity. It is concluded that weight-height square ratio along with measures of subcutaneous fat such as skinfold thickness would provide adequate information about body size and body fatness. The applicability of weight-heightp is limited to studies concerned with interpopulation comparisons of body mass and where there are differences in height.