American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 22, 1175-1189, Copyright © 1969 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Factors Affecting Body Density and Thickness of Subcutaneous Fat

Data on 518 Canadian City Dwellers

¹ From the Departments of Physiological Hygiene and Epidemiology and Biometrics School of Hygiene, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Factors affecting body density and skin-fold measurements are analyzed in a population of 518 Canadian city dwellers. The distribution of skin-fold measurements shows significant skewing and kurtosis in children and young adults but not in older members of the population; presumably, at this stage all have some obesity. In our adult subjects, there seems neither theoretical nor experimental justification for logarithmic transformation of the data. The first component of a principal component analysis accounts for 59-74% of the variance of data at different ages. Six skin folds (subscapular, chest, waist, abdomen, triceps, and suprailiac) are uniformly represented in this component, which seems a general expression of subcutaneous fat. Two other folds (chin and knee) behave atypically. In children, the best prediction of body density is obtained from the sum of the three folds recommended for the IBP (triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac); however, caution should be exercised in endorsing the triceps measurement since this fails to increase with age, and the reported results vary widely between different laboratories. Some 72% of the variance in skin-fold measurements can be described by a multiple regression based on weight, height, and height². Other factors having a significant influence on skin-fold thickness include age, alcohol consumption, attitude to sport, and sleeping habits.