Changes of the body mass index during childhood.

This article is devoted to the age changes of the Body Mass Index in Czech and Slovak children from 1.5 to 15 years of age. The anthropological survey was carried out in 1976-1978 in the whole region of the former Czechoslovakia. At the beginning of the research period children with normal weight predominate. After the seventh year of age there is a change and the BMI is increasing. As late as pre-puberty and puberty there is a change in a fractional part of the population, as children with overweight are increasing, more frequently in girls than in boys. However, its presence is not fundamentally increasing up to 15 years. The frequency differences in the different BMI categories between both sexes in the Czech and Slovak populations are only rarely statistically significant.

Regional, age and sexual differences of BMI of the Czech and Slovak adult populations at the end of the 20th century.

Nowadays the Body Mass Index (BMI) is used everywhere as the coefficient of normal weight, overweight and obesity. In the years 1987-1988 an anthropometrical survey was carried out in the whole region of the former Czechoslovakia, which was done on 20,232 adult males and females, aged from 18 to more than 70 years. The research was made on the basis of three grade statistical choice and is representative for the entire territory of the Czech and Slovak Republics. Body height and body weight were determined according to Martin & Saller (1957; M 1, M 71). For the assessment of regional differences the whole set of data was divided into 12 separate groups in accordance to the administrative regions existing at that time. Each group was then analyzed considering eleven age classes.

International anthropometric study of facial morphology in various ethnic groups/races.

When anthropometric methods were introduced into clinical practice to quantify changes in the craniofacial framework, features distinguishing various races/ethnic groups were discovered. To treat congenital or post-traumatic facial disfigurements in members of these groups successfully, surgeons require access to craniofacial databases based on accurate anthropometric measurements. Normative data of facial measurements are indispensable to precise determination of the degree of deviations from the normal. The set of anthropometric measurements of the face in the population studied was gathered by an international team of scientists. Investigators in the country of the given ethnic group, experienced and/or specially trained in anthropometric methods, carried out the measurements. The normal range in each resultant database was then established, providing valuable information about major facial characteristics. Comparison of the ethnic groups' databases with the established norms of the North America whites (NAW) offered the most suitable way to select a method for successful treatment. The study group consisted of 1470 healthy subjects (18 to 30 years), 750 males and 720 females. The largest group (780 subjects, 53.1%) came from Europe, all of them Caucasians. Three were drawn from the Middle-East (180 subjects, 12.2%), five from Asia (300 subjects, 20.4%) and four from peoples of African origin (210 subjects, 14.3%). Their morphological characteristics were determined by 14 anthropometric measurements, 10 of them used already by classic facial artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, complemented by four measurements from the nasal, labio-oral and ear regions. In the regions with single measurements, identical values to NAW in forehead height, mouth width, and ear height were found in 99.7% in both sexes, while in those with multiple measurements, vertical measurements revealed a higher frequency of identical values than horizontal ones. The orbital regions exhibited the greatest variations in identical and contrasting measurements in comparison to NAW. Nose heights and widths contrasted sharply: in relation to NAW the nose was very or extremely significantly wide in both sexes of Asian and Black ethnic groups. Among Caucasians, nose height significantly differed from NAW in three ethnic groups, with one shorter and two greater. In the Middle Eastern groups nose width was identical to those of NAW but the height was significantly greater. The present study, conducted by investigators working separately across the world and with small samples of the population, is clearly preliminary in nature and extent. Yet it may fulfill its mission if medical and anthropological investigators continue the work of establishing normative data of the face. These data are urgently needed by medical professionals but have been lacking up till now in western and northern Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Development of centrality indices of subcutaneous fat during growth.

Changes of fat distribution were followed up in Czech and Slovak children from 1.5 to 15 years of age, using centrality indices, which relate the values of skinfolds on the trunk to the skinfolds on the extremities, head and neck. Up to 5 years of age, subcutaneous fat was deposited relatively more on the extremities, head and neck than on the trunk, which was expressed by lower values of the centrality indices. After the age of 5 years, the accumulation of subcutaneous fat was greater on the trunk, which was also expressed by higher values of the centrality indices. The comparison of the individual indices revealed in both genders a relatively higher amount of subcutaneous fat on the trunk in boys until 12 years of age. During puberty subcutaneous fat over triceps and on the forearm was reduced. In girls the deposition of the subcutaneous fat was relatively greater at different sites of the trunk than in boys, with the exception of the age of 14-15 years. The deposition of subcutaneous fat was greater on the trunk than on the head (cheek) and on the extremities in Czech compared to Slovak children, except for 12-year-old girls. During the period between the fifties and the seventies of the last century, in Czech children, especially in girls, the deposition of subcutaneous fat on the trunk was relatively smaller than on other parts of the body surface, which was expressed by the reduction of the centrality indices. Index 12 was therefore considered as the most valuable for the characterization of fat distribution on the body surface.