Physical Fitness in Terms of Physique, Development and Basal Metabolism

Abstract

A new method for evaluating physical fitness, based on the use of a grid to aid in this purpose, is described in the present paper. The method is particularly adapted to clinical work, since it requires as initial measurements merely routine data on weight, height and age. In return for these data, and these alone, it supplies objective ratings on physique (body build), development, nutritional grade, physical status and age advancement and, in addition, information on certain other items of importance. A concrete record is thus constructed which complements the subjective result gained by clinical examination. It is, therefore, a special purpose of this paper to show how the grid may aid medical examiners in judging the individual physical state and progress during the long period extending from the close of infancy to fully established maturity. THE NEED FOR A NEW METHODThe need for an instrument of this kind is widely felt. Souther, Eliot and Jenss 1 have remarked : "With the public conscience demanding protection of the health of the child and the school medical services expanding to meet this need, the development of a simple economical but accurate means of assessing the child's state of well being or physical fitness is in order." Today much of the information in medical records which refers to physical fitness is summed up in very general phrases such as "well developed and well nourished." In spite of countless attempts to standardize various physical dimensions and repeated exhortations to use them with understanding, physicians, school and public health officials and even laymen have come more and more to treat simple physical measure¬ ments, such as weights and heights, as all but worthless. The situation has not been remedied by the introduction of more extensive measurements comprising so-called batteries of tests.2 Not only have recommendations been made to measure many different diameters, lengths and circumferences of the body and even thicknesses of the skin and subcutaneous tissues in the trunks and limbs, but also rather ambitious plans have been proposed to estimate the content of vitamins, hormones, min¬ erals and other substances in blood and urine, as well as to undertake roentgen studies of bones and performance tests on heart, lungs and muscle.2 This trend toward making the routine of examination and the methods of dealing with the troublesome question of physical state continually more complicated has been encouraged by repeated failure to establish consistent and reliable standards of comparison for simple physical measurements.The difficulties in the problem are important and should be touched on briefly. The success of estimating physical fitness by clinical examination has found scarcely more than 50 to 70 per cent agreement between experienced physicians.3 Tables of height and weight, even when they are used in conjunction with medical estimates of physicians, have repeatedly been shown to possess no more than 60 per cent overall reliability in differentiating between persons of sa...

Dental Fluorosis and Nutritional Status of 6– to 11–Year–Old Children Living in Rural Areas of Paraíba, Brazil

“…Massler and Schour [1952] observed that fluorosis (Dean's index) was related to malnutrition. They classified nutritional status according to a weight-height ratio suggested by Wetzel [1941]. However, weight measurements can be of little value since they indicate the current nutrition status [WHO, 1995].…”

Skinfold in Old and Longlived Individuals

“…This problem was studied in children and adolescents by PaHzkova (1961) who used Wetzel's somatotypes ( Wetzel, 1941) and provided evidence that in girls the value on the abdom en, arm and hip correlate most closely. In boys the most reliable value is the m easurem ent on the back and chest, while the m easurement of the abdom en is fifth in order.…”

Assessment of Growth and Development in Children

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