THE EVALUATION OF THE STATE OF NUTRITION THROUGH THE DETERMINATION OFANTHROPOMETRIC PARAMETERS - NEW TABLES IN THE WORKING POPULATION IN CATALONIA (SPAIN)

BACKGROUND: Body composition measure by anthropometric parameters perm its the detection of populations at risk of developing diseases with g reater impact in public health and provides standard values of normali ty of nutritional state.METHODs: A prospective transversal study was c arried out with a randomly selected sample of 6,445 individuals taken from 25,279 workers evaluated in Safety and Hygiene Centers during 199 0. Chronically ill patients were excluded with 5,019 healthy individua ls between 16 and 65 years of age being selected. The following data w ere obtained: height, weight, skin fold of the biceps and triceps, sub scapular and abdominal and arm perimeter. Calculation of the weight/he ight1,5, weight/height2, weight/height, sum of two and four folds, mid -arm muscle circunference, area fo the arm, muscle area of the arm, ad ipose area of the arm and muscle adipose index was performed. RESULTS: The tables of the percentiles 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 9 0, 95, and 99 of the anthropometric parameters according to sex and ag e are presented. Significant differences were found among the age grou ps for the fat parameters which were greater from the third decade for the fold of the fat of the trunk in males and from the fourth decade of the fat parameters of the trunk and extremities of females. The mus cle parameters successively increased in both sexes and for each age g roup up to the fourth decade and thereafter remained stable. CONCLUSIO NS: The values of the anthropometric parameters may be used as standar d patterns of the working population in Catalonia. The differences bet ween sexes and age groups, such as with the values of the Catalan popu lation previously referred and those of the American population, indic ate that the anthropometric measurements of body composition must be p eriodically determined to ensure adequate standards of each population .