PEDIATRICS Vol. 36 No. 2 August 1965, pp. 212-218
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THE TRICEPS SKINFOLD AS A PREDICTIVE MEASURE OF BODY DENSITY AND BODY FAT IN OBESE ADOLESCENT GIRLS

Carl C. Seltzer Ph.D.1, Ralph F. Goldman Ph.D.2, and Jean Mayer Ph.D., D.Sc.3

1 Department of Nutrition, Harvard University School of Public Health
2 The Adolescents' Unit, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
3 The U. S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, Massachusetts

The relationship of body density to skinfolds, anthropometric measurements, and indices is studied in a series of 32 obese adolescent girls. The possibility of using various skinfolds as predictors of density was tested. Triceps skinfold is suggested as the best simple predictor of body density (and hence percentage total body fat) in obese adolescent girls. For this population, the following regression equation is recommended for the prediction of body density from the triceps skinfold measurement.

body density = 1.1516 - 0.09256 log triceps skinfold

In recognition of the need for a more objective definition of obesity as well as for a simple, reasonable precise method for estimating the degree of obesity of the individual based on actual fat content, it is proposed that adolescent girls with triceps skinfold thickness 25 mm and over should be characterized as obese; and a conversion table is presented for the direct estimation of body density and percentage body fat from triceps skinfold thickness in obese adolescent females ages 12-18.

Submitted on September 11, 1964
Accepted on March 18, 1965




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J. Mayer and D. W. Thomas
Regulation of Food Intake and Obesity
Science, April 21, 1967; 156(3773): 328 - 337.
[Abstract] [PDF]