The relationships between height and arm span, mid-upper arm and waist circumferences and sum of four skinfolds in Ellisras rural children aged 8–18 years

Abstract

Objective: Height is required for the assessment of growth and nutritional status, as well as for predictions and standardization of physiological parameters. To determine whether arm span, mid-upper arm and waist circumferences and sum of four skinfolds can be used to predict height, the relationships between these anthropometric variables were assessed among Ellisras rural children aged 8-18 years. Design: The following parameters were measured according to the International Society for the Advancement of Kinathropometry: height, arm span, mid-upper arm circumference, waist circumference and four skinfolds (suprailiac, subscapular, triceps and biceps). Associations between the variables were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients and linear regression models. Setting: Ellisras Longitudinal Study (ELS), Limpopo Province, South Africa. Subjects: Boys (n 911) and girls (n 858) aged 8-18 years. Results: Mean height was higher than arm span, with differences ranging from 4 cm to 11·5 cm between boys and girls. The correlation between height and arm span was high (ranging from 0·74 to 0·91) with P < 0·001. The correlation between height and mid-upper arm circumference, waist circumference and sum of four skinfolds was low (ranging from 0·15 to 0·47) with P < 0·00 among girls in the 15-18 years age group. Conclusions: Arm span was found to be a good predictor of height. The sum of four skinfolds was significantly associated with height in the older age groups for girls, while waist circumference showed a negative significant association in the same groups.

Sitting height, sitting height/height ratio, arm span and arm span-height difference of healthy adolescents in Surakarta, Indonesia

“…Wongsodjaja 16 In contrast, South African and Turkish children had longer height than arm span. 22,23 In our study, mean arm span and AHD in females were lower than in males. The mean AHDs in our study were longer than those reported in another Indonesian study (less than 2 cm in both sexes) and in Turkish adolescents (less than 3 cm in both sexes).…”

A review of adolescent nutrition in South Africa: transforming adolescent lives through nutrition initiative

“…The majority of studies were conducted within eight of South Africa's nine provinces (i.e. the country's principal administrative districts); specifically: Eastern Cape (n = 3), 72,75,76 Free State (n = 1), 71 Gauteng (n = 25), 22,26,31,32,[35][36][37]40,46,[48][49][50][51][52][56][57][58][61][62][63]69,[77][78][79][80] KwaZulu -Natal (n = 3), 23,59,60 Limpopo (n = 4), 28,29,81,83 Mpumalanga (n = 8), 44,45,[66][67][68]73,82,86 North West (n = 9) 25,27,30,42,47,64,…”

“…51,52,68,83 Sample size ranged between 50 and 3 490 for quantitative studies and between 22 and 58 for qualitative studies. 19 studies were conducted in rural contexts 23,28,29,44,45,53,54,59,60,[66][67][68]73,75,76,81,82,85,86 and 35 in urban and/or peri-urban contexts 22,24,26,31,33,[35][36][37][40][41][42]46,[48][49][50][51][52][55][56][57][58][61][62][63][64][65]69,71,…”

“…Across age categories the majority of studies showed higher waist circumference in girls compared with boys 64,66,67,72,81,86 ( Figure 11). White adolescents had higher waist circumference than their black counterparts at 12-16 years (65.5 cm [black], 70.4 cm [white]) 64 and waist circumference tended to be higher in adolescents from urban vs. rural settings.…”

“…In total, 49 studies met the inclusion criteria for objective one. [23][24][25][27][28][29][30][31][32]34,35,38,39,[42][43][44][45][47][48][49][50]53,54,[56][57][58][59][60][62][63][64][65][66][67][70][71][72][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][84][85][86][87] Of the included studies, all but four described adolescent nutritional status using one or more of the following anthropometric measurements: height and weight, BMI and waist circumference. 24,…”