[An anthropometric equation for the determination of the percentage of body fat in young men from the Canarian population].

BACKGROUND

Yet there are no anthropometric equations specific for the Canary Islands adult population. The purpose of this study was to develop an anthropometric equation specific for the Canary Islands adult male population, using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) as the reference method.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

One hundred and sixty-nine males, twenty-two with a sedentary lifestyle and the rest participating in different kinds of sports, were recruited from students at the Physical Education Faculty at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and from people living in Gran Canaria. About 70% of subjects were born in the Canary Islands, while the rest mostly originated from other regions of Spain. In each subject, anthropometric measurements were taken and %BF assessed by DEXA (QDR-1500, Hologic). The one hundred forty-seven active subjects were used to develop the equation, while the twenty-two sedentary subjects were used to cross-validate the equation. Active subjects age, weight, height and percent body fat (%BF) were 23.6 +/- 3.3 years (18.2-36.2), 73.5 +/- 9.5 kg (49.4-103.3), 177.3 +/- 7.7 cm (155.1-206.0) and 12.1 +/- 4.5% (1.8-30.1), respectively.

RESULTS

A stepwise multiple regression was used to develop the following equation: %BF = 23.59943 x [log10 sigma (triceps, abdominal, iliac crest, front thigh and calf skinfolds in mm)] + [15.99428 x (abdominal girth/thoracic girth)] + [0.19299 x age in years] -45.88485 (R = 0.92, EES = 1.8% GC, p < 0.001). Cross-validation showed that the aforementioned equation predicted %BF (17.8 x 5.3%) slightly lower than that obtained with DEXA (19.6 +/- 7.8%, p < 0.05). The intraclass correlation coefficient between both procedures was R = 0.92. In addition, in our sedentary subjects, this equation was more precise than the Durnin and Womersley, Yuhasz, Sloan, and Katch and McArdle equations.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows the validity of our equation to estimate the percentage of body fat in Canary Islands adult males, independent of the level of physical activity.