On the body composition of obese children and in particular, sexual, age, and regional differences of skinfold thickness.

Recently in Japan, it has been observed that the physical dimensions of schoolboys and schoolgirls, specifically stature and body weight, are increasing year by year, and that spurts in increase in dimensions tend to happen earlier. The phenomena of accelerated growth are resulting in more obesity and leanness in childhood. Skinfold thickness, body density, body fat and lean body mass estimated from body density, creatinine excretion in the 24-hour urine, and muscular volume calculated from creatinine excretion were studied in obese children and normal children of 10 and 11 years of age, and the difference in the skinfold thickness by sec, age, and district in school children in five districts in southern Kyushu (1,002 boys and 931 girls) were examined. Reference was then made to the skinfold thickness of some of experienced and new sumo wrestlers of the Japan Professional Sumo Association whose nutrition intake is high and who show high ratios of diabetes mellitus and cardiac diseases. The results of the present study were also compared with the results of skinfold thickness measurements of children in Ghana and Kenya and those of the skinfold thickness and body composition measurements of Czechoslovakian children.