Research Article - Current Pediatric Research (2017) Volume 21, Issue 1

Measurement of body composition by upper arm anthropometry

Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India.

*Corresponding Author:

Kankana De
Vidyasagar University
West Bengal, India.
Tel: +919474714273
E-mail: dekankana@mail.vidyasagar.ac.in

Accepted date: January 26, 2016

Abstract

Background: Body composition is most commonly assessed by anthropometry like body Mass index, 60 % of human body weight is composed of water, rest 40% of body is composed of protein, fat and minerals and body composition between skinfold. Body weight is determined by leanness. Human body composition can be divided into the following major components: Fat mass (FM) and fat free mass (FFM). FM is the absolute amount of body fat, including all extractable lipids from adipose and other tissues. The FFM consists of all residual chemicals. Methods: The anthropometric measurements of height, weight, MUAC and TSF were recorded using standard procedures .Height is measured by anthropometer rod it is measured distance from floor to vertex. The participants were requested to remove their shoes prior to their measurement and wear minimum light clothing when they were on the weighing machine. The weighing machine was checked from time to time to set zero. The MUAC was taken at the point midway between the acromion and the radiale of the upperarm using a plastic coated non-stretchable measuring tape on the left side to the nearest 0.10 cm. Standing behind the subject the triceps skinfold was picked up with thumb and index figure. Approximately 1 cm proximal to marked level and jaws of caliper were applied to skinfold at previously marked level and measurement was taken. To analyse data spsss20 was used. Results: In present study mid upper arm circumference is increased by age which is shown in one way ANOVA. F=193.45 which shows significant relation in frequency of UMA, UFE, UME. It was also represented that age wise change in UMA, UME which represents that growth spurts in 10-18 years. Conclusion: Upper arm measurement, Upper arm fat area, MUAC are increases with age, this study is on adolescence girls, in every human life cycle adolescence is that when growth spurt occurs so result that study is also representing it. This study shows girls are malnourished, need nutritional supplement to improve their health.

Keywords

Mid upper arm circumferences, Triceps, Upper arm muscle area, Upper arm muscle estimation.

Abbreviations

UFA: Upper Arm Fat Area; AFI: Arm Fat Index; UFE: Upper Arm Fat Area Estimate; UME: Upper Arm Muscle Area Estimate.

Introduction

Body composition is most commonly assessed by anthropometry like body Mass index; 60% of human body weight is composed of water, rest 40% of body is composed of protein, fat and minerals and body composition and between skinfold. Body weight is determined by leanness. Human body composition can be divided into the following major components: Fat mass (FM) and fat free mass (FFM) [1-5]. FM is the absolute amount of body fat; it includes all extractable lipids from adipose and other tissues. The FFM consists of all residual chemicals and tissues including water, muscle, bone, connective tissues, and internal organs [6-10]. The upper arm is to take several assessments. Poor body composition and nutritional status can lead to increased morbidity, poor physical activity and performances. The upper arm composition has received consideration in few decades. With help of MUAC and triceps estimation of upper arm Muscle area, Upper arm fat area, Upper muscle area estimation can be done and it will help in adiposity measure [11-24].

Materials and Method

For this study data is collected from Anwesha Clinic which adolescent is counselling centre which is situated in Salboni Rural Hospital, this hospital is in Salboni block which is in Paschim Medinipur, WestBengal, India.

The anthropometric measurements of height, weight, MUAC and TSF were recorded using standard procedures. Height is measured by anthropometer rod which measures distance from floor to vertex. The participants were requested to remove their shoes prior to their measurement and wear minimum light clothing when they were on the weighing machine. The weighing machine was checked from time to time to set zero. The MUAC was taken at the point midway between the acromion and the radiale of the upper-arm using a plastic coated non-stretchable measuring tape on the left side to the nearest 0.10 cm. Standing behind the subject the triceps skinfold was picked up with thumb and index figure. Approximately 1 cm proximal to marked level and jaws of caliper was applied to skinfold at previously marked level and measurement was taken through standard deviation.to analyse data SPSS 20 was used.

Sample size for these study 1009 girls are interviewed through schedule questionnaires, age range of this study 10-19 years old adolescents, 100 girls in every age.

Statistical Analysis

Age wise ANOVA, different descriptive statistical tool help to complete this study.

Results

In present study mid upper arm circumference is increased by age which is shown in one way ANOVA F=193.45 which again has shown significant relation in Tables 1 and 2 represents frequency of UMA, UFE, UME, Table 3 represents that age wise change in UMA,UME which represents that growth spurt in 10-18 years.

Discussion

They have also advocated that these measures are very useful to monitor body-composition on, nutritional status and for evaluating the effects of target specific intervention on supplementary programmes.

This study helps to estimate nutritional status of adolescent other than BMI, by estimating nutritional status it shows present scenario of under nutrition. Body composition is an important indicator of health status in children and adolescents because maintaining a healthy body composition prevents the onset of obesity which is associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and stroke. This study is done on adolescent counselling centre where counsellor provides counselling on nutrition, reproductive health, by this study under nutrient girls get support of counsellors get nutrition supplement example iron folic acid supplement, even it shown that under nutrient girls experience delayed menarche; those girls are found obese and they get suggestions on how they manage their weight and get knowledge of bad effect of obesity. Insen study girls’ thinness is 21.3% in respect of upper anthropometry, Taylor et al.’s [2] study found that in compare to late adolescence young adults have higher regional adiposity, total body fat is higher in compare to males it had shown in African adolescent.

Table 1. Represents frequency of UMA, UFE, UME of present study.

Table 2. Represents frequency of TUA, UFA, AFI

Table 3. Age wise change in UFE, UMA, UME, UFA, AFI

Conclusion

This study upper arm shows that measurement, upper arm fat area, Muac increase with age, this study is adolescence girls, in every human life cycle adolescence is that when growth spurt occurs the result is this study girls are malnourished need nutritional supplement to improve their health.

Declaration

Ethics approval and consent to participate: subjects gave verbal consent in respect to measurement and general information.

Acknowledgement

At first I thankfully acknowledge to authorities of the Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University for providing me indispensable amenities, I convey my deep sense gratitude and earnest thanks to my Supervisor] Prof Kaushik Sankar Bose for his pleasant guidance and careful assistance I thankfully acknowledge to clients of Anwesha Clinic for open handed support and cooperation during field Survey. I also express my loving thankfulness to all Adolescent girls who participated in research survey.

References

1. Wells JCK. The evolutionary biology of human body fatness: Thrift and control. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010.
2. Taylor RW, Grant AM, Williams SM, et al. Sex differences in regional body fat distribution from pre- to post-puberty. Obesity 2010; 18: 1410?1416.
3. Thibault R, Genton L, Pichard C. Body composition: why, when and for who? Clin Nutr 2012; 31: 435?447.
4. Lohman TG, Going SB. Body composition assessment for development of an international growth standard for preadolescent and adolescent children. Food Nutr Bull 2006; 27: S314-S325.
5. Derman O, Yalcin SS, Kanbur NO, et al. The importance of the measurement of the circumference of arm, arm muscle area and skinfold thickness during puberty. Int J Adolesc Med Health 2002; 14: 193-197.
6. Chomtho S, Fewtrell MS, Jaffe A, et al. Evaluation of arm anthropometry for assessing pediatric body composition: Evidence from healthy and sick children. Pediatr Res 2006; 59: 860-865.
7. Sen J, Mondal N. Fat mass and fat-free mass as indicators of body composition among Bengali Muslim children. Ann Hum Biol 2013; 40: 286-293.
8. Frisancho AR. New norms of upper limb fat and muscle areas for assessment of nutritional status. Am J Clin Nutr 1981; 34: 2540?2045.
9. Frisancho AR. Anthropometric standard for the assessment of growth and nutrition status. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press 1989.
10. Rolland Cachera MF. Body composition during adolescence: Methods, limitations and determinants. Horm Res 1993; 39: S25?S40.
11. Gibson RS. Principle of nutritional assessment. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2005.
12. Cole TJ, Faith MS, Pietrobelli A, et al. What is the best measure of adiposity change in growing children: BMI, BMI %, BMI z-score or BMI centile? Eur J Clin Nutr 2005; 59: 419?425.
13. Freedman DS, Wang J, Maynard LM, et al. Relation of BMI to fat and fat-free mass among children and adolescents. Int J Obes (Lond) 2005; 29: 1?8.
14. Thibault R, Pichard C. The evaluation of body composition: a useful tool for clinical practice. Ann Nutr Metab 2012; 60: 6?16.
15. Rolland Cachera MF, Brambilla P, Manzoni P, et al. Body composition assessed on the basis of arm circumference and triceps skinfold thickness: A new index validated in children by magnetic resonance imaging. Am J Clin Nutr 1997; 65: 1709?1713.
16. Derman O, Yalcin SS, Kanbur NO, et al. The influence of the sexual stages of adolescent boys on the circumference of the arm, muscle area and skinfold measurement. Int J Adolesc Med Health 2002; 14: 19?26.
17. Frisancho AR, Tracer DP. Standards of arm muscle by stature for the assessment of nutritional status of children. Am J Phys Anthropol 1987; 73: 459?465.
18. 18.De K, Das S, Bose K, et al. Nutritional status of rural girls aged 10-18 years of Salboni, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India. Asian Journal of Biological Science and Life Sciences 2011.
19. Kankana D. Influence of socio-economic status on nutritional status on rural adolescent girls. Anthropol 2016; 4: 168.
20. Kankana D. Nutritional status and menarcheal age of rural adolescent girls of Salboni block of Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India. J Child Adolesc Behav 2016.
21. Giles WH, Dietz WH. Prevalence of the metabolic syndrome among US adults: Findings from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. JAMA 2002; 287: 356?359. 
22. Ho SC, Chen YM, Woo JL, et al. Association between simple anthropometric indices and cardiovascular risk factors. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2001; 25: 1689-1697.
23. Obuchowski NA. An ROC-type measure of diagnostic accuracy when the gold standard is continuous scale. Stat Med 2006; 25: 481-493.
24. Kavak V, Pilmane M, Kavoka D. Body mass index, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio in the prediction of obesity in prediction of obesity in Turkish teenager. Collegium Anthropologium 2014.