The influence of the sexual stages of adolescent boys on the circumference of the arm, muscle area and skinfold measurements.

The purpose of this study was to detect the changes in the circumference of the arm, skinfold thickness (SFT), arm muscle area (AMA) and arm fat area (AFA), during the sexual development of healthy adolescent boys. This study was done with 74 adolescent boys, aged 9-17 years, with no chronic diseases, no developmental delay, no current medication with height ages appropriate for their bone ages, and body mass indexes between 50-75 percentiles. Body weight and height, the circumference of the arm and the SFT were measured. Body mass index, AMA and AFA were calculated. The mean arm circumference and AMA increased significantly from Tanner stage 1 to 5. AMA was significantly and positively correlated with age, weight, height, body mass index, arm circumference, SFT. After adjusting for Tanner stages, AMA was not correlated with age. A significant negative correlation was found between AMA and arm fat area. In the present study, it was seen that the sexual stages affected the circumference of arm, AMA, and the skinfold thickness in healthy adolescent boys, who were appropriate for their bone ages, and had good nutritional status. Further studies are required to detect the effect of pubertal stage on arm anthropometry in different nutritional status including obesity and malnutrition.