Critical evaluation of frame size determination in the 1983 Metropolitan Life weight for height tables.

According to Metropolitan Life, the criteria used in placing individuals into frame size classes on the basis of elbow breadth should result in a 25-50-25% (small-medium-large) distribution. This assumption was evaluated using a large sample of Canadians (n = 19,305). Results indicated that the hypothesized distribution was not achieved in either males or females; few subjects were classified as large frame. The small percentage of subjects classified as large frame resulted in a skewing of the weight categorizations in males, but not in females.