Prediction of body dentisty from skin-fold and girth measurements of college females.

Abstract

The body density of 64 college females at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, was determined by the underwater weighing method. Six subcutaneous skin-fold measurements, 4 girth measurments, and 4 bone diameters were taken on the subjects. The mean body density was 1.049 g/ml (SD + 0.011), which corresponded to 21.5% by weight of fat. The skin fold which showed the highest correlation with density in a stepwise multiple regression analysis was the tricep skin fold (-0.59), while the best single girth measurement was the buttock (-0.52). The highest multiple correlation with density was from the iliac, tricep, and scapula skin-fold, and the buttock, abdomen, and arm girths (0.72). Using only 4 measurements, tricep and scapula skin folds and buttock and arm giths, resulted in a correlation of 0.70. Comparisons are made between density, lean body weight, and percent body fat of young females in various geographic regions in the USA and in other countries.