title: Population-based centile curves for triceps, subscapular, and abdominal skinfold thicknesses in Polish children and adolescents--the OLAF study.
abstract: Skinfold thicknesses are used as valid anthropometric indicators of regional body fatness. Actual population-based values for skinfold thicknesses for Polish children are not available. The purpose of this study was to provide population-based values for triceps, subscapular, and abdominal skinfold thicknesses in healthy children and adolescents. A total number of 17,416 boys and girls aged 6.5-18.5 years, randomly selected from whole Polish population of children and adolescents, were enrolled in the study. Skinfold thicknesses (triceps, subscapular, and abdominal) were measured using Harpenden skinfold caliper. All measurements were taken after the training of participating investigators. The LMS method was used to fit percentile curves across age for each skinfold. Q tests for fit were used to assess the global goodness of fit of our final models. The study shows for the first time smoothed population-based values of body fat distribution indices for Polish children and adolescents 7-18 years of age. Reported skinfold centiles are higher compared to previously established for Warsaw children and very close to the actual US data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study provided for the first time population-based values for skinfold thicknesses evaluation in a way allowing to calculate reliable Z scores. The early detection of abnormal fat stores, using our population-based values and respective Z scores, may be now implemented for practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Experimental Medicine, The Children's Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland. pracownia.densytometria@czd.pl
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jaworski
authors.forename: Zbigniew
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kułaga
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Płudowski
authors.forename: Aneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grajda
authors.forename: Beata
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gurzkowska
authors.forename: Ewelina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Napieralska
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Swiąder
authors.forename: Huiqi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Mieczysław
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Litwin
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D001132:Arm; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011044:Poland; D012016:Reference Values; D012540:Scapula; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012885:Skinfold Thickness