Anthropometric studies on Dunedin five and six year old children
Birkbeck, J.A.; Guthrie, A.M.
New Zealand Medical Journal 91(659): 331-334
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-8446 PMID: 6930017 Document Number: 155826
For groups of about 450 of each sex 5 years old and 130 of each sex 6 years old, tables give for children in Dunedin, New Zealand, the height, bodyweight, bodyweight velocity in kg gain/year, left triceps and subscapular skinfold thicknesses, arm circumference and diameter, body mass index (a modified Quetelet index), head circumference, sitting height, cormic index (the proportion of sitting to standing height) and the Eid index of obesity (actual bodyweight as a percentage of expected bodyweight-for-height, which was the 50th centile bodyweight for age at which the child's height would lie on the 50th centile). By the Eid index, at 5 years old 6.7% of girls and 14.7% of boys, and at 6 years old 12.5 and 16.1%, were average, index 110 to 120%, but only 1.8, 3.7, 3.1 and 5.8% were obese, index over 120%. Height velocity is mentioned in the text. From the measurements it was concluded that those Dunedin children were about the same as children of European origin in UK and USA. Skinfold data may reflect the early origins of obesity to come in later childhood, but conclusions now would be premature. Dietary data are required for the growth data to be interpreted further.