Skin-fold thickness and muscle size: implications for developmental status and nutritional evaluation of children from Honduras

Abstract

The relationships between triceps skin fold and stature, and between upper arm muscle diameter and stature were studied in a cross-sectional sample of 647 age-matched pairs of Honduran rural children, aged 0 to 20 years. The results of the present study suggest that, within the range of subcutaneous fat observed in these children, only those with triceps skin folds above the 95th percentile and those below the 5th percentile differ markedly in stature, thereby suggesting that the relationship between fatness and growth is not linear. On the other hand, children with upper arm muscle diameter above the 85th percentile are systematically taller than their counterparts with upper arm muscle diameter below the 15th percentile. The implications of these findings are that measurements of muscularity of children in underdeveloped countries can be used as a general index of nutritional status, whereas measures of skin folds may serve as indicators of nutritional status only at the extremes of leanness and fatness. Furthermore, the demonstrated value of the arm circumference in the assessment of nutritional status (30) may, in undernourished populations, lie more in the muscular contribution than in the combination of fat and muscle