Anthropometry

Abstract: This paper presents recommendations for the analysis and presentation of height and weight data from surveillance or surveys involving nutrition and anthropometry in young children up to the age of 10 years. These recommendations are only for the analysis of data collected on a cross-sectional basis. The basic indices recommended are height for age and weight for height, each considered either in terms of centiles or in a cross-classification scheme using standard deviation scores. It is hoped that these methods of analysis and presentation will prove widely acceptable, so that international comparisons will be made easier.

Abstract: Abstract : In 1974 the National Academy of Sciences' urged that new growth charts for infants and children be prepared using current data for the nutritional assessment of populations of infants and children in the United States. The Academy recommended using the data on growth and development collected over the past decade by the Health Examination Surveys (HES) of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), supplemented by age-appropriate sets of height and weight data on infants and children from the Fels Research Institute and from an Ohio State University team headed by Dr. George Owen. Earlier (1971), a study group, cosponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Maternal and Child Health Program, Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW), had made similar recommendations. This latter report emphasized the use of such data in the clinical assessment of the growing infant and child, thereby supplementing nutritional screening and other epidemiologic assessments of populations of children. Again, in 1975, a research-oriented study group sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development made similar recommendations . Furthermore, each of the groups recommended that one set of data for all races would be sufficient for practical purposes, despite the small but actual differences in body measurements noted among racial groupings.

Abstract: In clinical practice and epidemiological surveys, anthropometric measurements represent an important component of nutritional assessment in the elderly. The anthropometric standards derived from adult populations may not be appropriate for the elderly because of body composition changes occurring during ageing. Specific anthropometric reference data for the elderly are necessary. In the present study we investigated anthropometric characteristics and their relationship to gender and age in a cross-sectional sample of 3356 subjects, randomly selected from an elderly Italian population. In both sexes, weight and height significantly decreased with age while knee height did not. The BMI was significantly higher in women than in men (27:6 SD 5:7 v. 26:4 SD 3:7; P,0:001) and it was lower in the oldest than in the youngest subjects (P,0:05) of both genders. The 75th year of age was a turning point for BMI as for other anthropometric measurements. According to BMI values, the prevalence of malnutrition was lower than 5 % in both genders, whereas obesity was shown to have a higher prevalence in women than in men (28 % v .1 6 %;P,0:001). Waist circumference and waist : hip ratio values were higher for the youngest men than for the oldest men (P,0:05), whereas in women the waist : hip ratio values were higher in the oldest women, suggesting that visceral redistribution in old age predominantly affects females. In conclusion, in the elderly the oldest subjects showed a thinner body frame than the youngest of both genders, and there was a more marked fat redistribution in women. Anthropometry: Nutritional status: Elderly: Cross-sectional