Protocol variations in arm position influence the magnitude of waist girth

Abstract

Waist girth is recognised as a better predictor of obesity, particularly abdominal obesity, compared to other measures. Although several protocols for waist girth exist, arm position is either ignored, or not specified in unambiguous terms. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if arm position influenced anthropometric waist girth measurement. Waist girth was measured in 92 adults (19 males, 73 females) with arms relaxed, abducted, horizontal, folded across the chest (three variations) and raised vertically. Duplicate measures, in all positions, were recorded by a single International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK)-trained technician to a precision of 0.2% technical error of measurement (TEM). Arm position had a significant effect (P < 0.001) on waist girth. Male participants had greater waist girth than females (P < 0.001) and the waist girth differences across the varying arm positions exhibited a significant position-by-gender interaction (P < 0.001). The arm position-by-body mass index (BMI) category interaction was also significant (P = 0.016) with greater differences observed at higher BMI. These findings suggest caution in comparing results of different studies where arm position is not specified and indicate that the arm position corresponding to the ISAK protocol has the lowest error and is therefore recommended.

Measurement of Waist and Hip Circumference with a Body Surface Scanner: Feasibility, Validity, Reliability, and Correlations with Markers of the Metabolic Syndrome

“…Further, participants might tend to hold their breath and pull in their stomach due to the contact during MM, either reflexively or consciously. Additionally, studies demonstrate that the arm posture can significantly influence the WC [ 9 , 29 ]. During AM in our study, the arm position was fixed so that it neither shadows the torso nor stretches the waist area.…”

Body height and waist circumference of young Swiss men as assessed by 3D laser-based photonic scans and by manual anthropometric measurements

“…A possible explanation for this difference is that volunteers tend to pull their stomach in for manual measurements (Jaeschke, Steinbrecher & Pischon, 2015). Other studies showed that arm posture had a significant influence on WC measurements (Lennie et al, 2013; Lu, Wang & Mollard, 2010). In our study arm posture was different in the scanner (slightly bent elbows and slightly separated from the body, but not too far away in order not to leave the measuring area) as in manual WC, where volunteers had to hold their arms further away from the trunk due to the measurement procedure.…”

Peer Review #3 of "Body height and waist circumference of young Swiss men as assessed by 3D laser-based photonic scans and by manual anthropometric measurements (v0.1)"

“…A possible explanation for this difference is that volunteers tend to pull their stomach in for manual measurements (Jaeschke et al 2015). Other studies showed that arm posture had a significant influence on WC measurements (Lennie et al 2013;Lu et al 2010). In our study arm posture was different in the scanner (slightly bend elbows and slightly separated from the body, but not too far away in order not to leave the measuring area) as in manual WC, where volunteers had to hold their arms further away from the trunk due to the measurement PeerJ reviewing PDF | (2019:06:38312:1:1:NEW 22 Oct 2019)…”