Abstract
This study was attempted to formulate a new equation for predicting the body composition of young and middle-aged Japanese men from anthropometric measurements. Sixty-four Japanese men aged from 12 to 52 years were measured for body composition using 15 anthropometric dimensions and hydrostatic weighing. Using this sample, the prediction equation of total body volume (TBV) was calculated as follows;
TBV=0.9424BW+0.1188AG-0.0695CG-0.0029AGE-2.893 (R=0.998, SEE=0.586)
where TBV, BW, AG, CG, and AGE were total body volume in liters, body weight in kg, abdominal girth in cm, chest girth in cm, and age in years, respectively. Relative fat content (%Fat) was also calculated by substituting the equation of TBV into the formula of BROZEK et al. (1963) for %Fat as
follows;
%Fat=(16.48BW+54.29AG-31.76CG-1.33AGE-1322)/BW (R=0.651, SEE=3.5)
These equations were cross-validated on a second sample of 20 men. The correlation between predicted and observed TBV was 0.997 with total error of estimate (TEE) of 609ml. Converted to units of %Fat, the TEE value was 4.2%. These equations were expected to be valid for young and middle-aged Japanese men.
