NUTR 442 - NUTRITION ASSESSMENT LABORATORY
EXPERIMENT 1 - ANTHROPOMETRIC ASSESSMENT
OBJECTIVE: To give students experience collecting and analyzing anthropometric data
important in the assessment of overall nutritional status.
DATA TO BE COLLECTED (for self and two lab partners):
1. Age
2. Height (inches without shoes, using wall mounted stadiometer)
3. Weight (pounds with very light clothing, using electronic balance)
4. Wrist circumference (cm, using Ross Insert Tape))
5. Elbow Breadth (cm, using metal anthropometric caliper)
6. Knee height (cm, using Ross Knee Height Caliper)
7. Waist Circumference (cm, using Gulick tape measure)
8. Hip Circumference (cm, using metal tape measure)
9. Arm Span (cm, using metal tape measure)
DETERMINE THE FOLLOWING:
1. Estimation of frame size from height to wrist ratio (table 6-5, p178)
2. Estimation of frame size based on elbow breadth (table 6-4, p178)
3. Desirable weight range (1983 Met Life Table)(tables 6-1, frame based on H/WC,
p174)
4. Midpoint desirable weight range (1983) (“Ideal Body Weight, IBW”)
The midpoint is the average of the outer range values from the Met Life Tables
5. % of desirable weight range (1983)
= (actual wt/IBW)*100
6. Body Mass Index (equation) and assessment based on 1998 NIH - Clinical
Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity
in Adults (Table 6.7, p180)
7. Determine ‘normal weight range based on these guidelines.
Normal weight would be calculated based on BMI = 18.5 for the lowest weight
to BMI = 24.9 for the highest weight.
8. Waist to Hip Ratio and recommendation based on WHR (p182)
Note that any assessment based on W/H ratio is generally relevant only with BMI
> 25
9. Waist circumference risk based on NIH Clinical Guidelines (Table 6.8, p183)
10. Estimated height based on Knee Height (table 7-1, p221)
11. % of height based on knee height to actual height (calculated ht/actual ht x 100)
12. Estimated height based on arm span (height = (0.87 x arm span) + 20.54
13. % of height based on arm span to actual height (calculated ht/actual ht x 100)
