Skinfold thickness measurements in assessment of nutritional status of Indian and White schoolchildren.

A statistical comparison is presented between height, weight, and subscapular and triceps skinfold thickness for age of Indian and White schoolchildren. It was found that (i) although a high degree of correlation existed between height and weight for age of White children, this was not true for Indian children; (ii) for both White and Indian children of both sexes inconsistent variations occurred between both height and weight and skinfold thickness; (iii) despite extremely low heights and weights observed for Indian children, which could be interpreted as depicting chronic undernutrition, the skinfold thicknesses of the latter children were close to normal as judged by conventional standards: the subscapular skinfold thicknesses in Indian girls actually exceeded the conventionally accepted normal standard values. It is concluded that in the indirect assessment of nutritional status of Indian subjects, anthropometric variables should be used with caution. Finally, it is proposed that further anthropometric and individual energy balance studies be conducted on a cross-section of various socio-economic, age and sex groups of the Indian population in an attempt to establish the basis for the described anomalies.