STUDIES ON THE BODY FAT MASS OF THE JAPANESE
- VernacularTitle:日本人のBody Fat Massに関する研究
- Author:
KOKI SATO
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- From:Japanese Journal of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine
1975;24(4):134-150
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
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Abstract:
A somatometric study attempting to investigate the standard values for body density at adolescence was performed by densitometry in a series of seventy-four subjects, 47 males with a median age of 21.5±1.7 years and 27 females averaging in age at 20.1±1.1 years. And also a simple equation for the estimation of body density from measured skinfold thickness was investigated.
Results obtained were as follows:
1. The body density was determined to be 1.0750±0.0118 (mean±standard deviation) for men and 1.0428±0.0090 for women, respectively. The corresponding body fat contents (fat%) were 11.0±4.7% and 24.1±3.8%.
2. Various indices of physical construction, viz., relative body weight, Rohrer's index, Vervaeck index, Ponderal index and Hirata's index, were noted to show a generally close correlation with the body fat content determined by the densitometry, the correlation with Rohrer's index being most prominent.
3. Of the skinfold thickness in seven different regions of body surface (chest, abdomen, crista iliaca, upperarm, subscapular, thigh and buttock), that of the abdomen displayed the closest correlationship with the estimated body density in both men and women.
4. The circumference of various parts of the trunk and extremities such as the shoulders, chest, abdomen, hips, thight, brachial biceps, forearm, wrist, knee, gastrocnemius muscles or ankle was found notably less closely correlated with the body density in both sexes than the skinfold thickness was, thus indicating poor usefulness of these parameters.
5. Assessments were made as to goodness of fit between the body density estimated by the previously proposed equations and the measured values. The equation of Wilmore (r=0.825) showed the highest goodness of fit in men and that of Sloan (r=0.768) in females, respectively, indicating their reliably high accuracy.
6. Twenty-one different combinations of two each out of the seven regions of skinfold thickness measurement were analyzed for coefficients of their multiple correlation with the measured body density. In both males and females, the abdomen-thigh combination was noted to show the highest correlation coefficients.
The multiple regression equations for this pair of regions were formulated to be: Y=1.09482-0.00119 abdomen S, mm-0.00085 thigh S, mm for men, and Y=1.07028-0.00082 abdomen S, mm-0.00035 thigh S, mm for women.
Only four males (8.50) and a female (4%) exhibited differences over than 0.01 between the body density estimated be these equations and the measured value.
The results indicate noticeable accuracy of the estimation of body density by these equations which we believe are commendable.
