SOMATOTYPE RELATED TO CENTRIPETAL FAT PATTERNING OF 8-YEAR-OLD TO 19-YEAR-OLD BASQUE BOYS AND GIRLS

The association between fat distribution and Heath-Carter anthropometr ic somatotypes was studied in a sample of Basque children and youth ag ed 8-19 years. About mid-adolescence, mean somatotype of Basque males changed, diminishing in endomorphy and mesomorphy, and increasing slig htly in ectomorphy. For the same period, reduced mesomorphy was the mo st striking change in the female mean somatotype; meanwhile, there was an increase in. endomorphy and a decrease in ectomorphy. Two groups o f fat distribution were identified: centripetal and peripheral. Centri petal fat increased with age in both sexes. Fat distribution groups sh owed the following characteristics: a) mean somatotypes of centripetal and peripheral subjects were significantly different; b) centripetal boys and girls were extreme endomorphs prior to adolescent somatotype change; c) centripetal girls showed high ratings of endomorphy after a dolescence; d) mesomorphy was related to a centripetal fat distributio n pattern in both sexes; e) using the BMI as a criterion of obesity, o nly 16.3% of centripetal males and 21.8% of centripetal females were c lassified as obese; f) obesity was absent among subjects with a periph eral pattern, except for one male showing an endomorphic-mesomorph som atotype; h) the obese showed extreme somatotypes with high endomorphy and mesomorphy, and minimal ectomorphy. (C) 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.