Anthropometric Parameters for Height Estimation in Egyptian Elderly Females

Abstract

The current study is a cross sectional study conducted to estimate height in community dwelling Egyptian ambulant elderly females. The study included 226 community dwelling elderly females (60 years old and above) with mean age 66.0±5.6. Elderly females who refused to participate in our study, uncooperative, bed or chair-bound, with a plaster cast, a prosthetic, an amputated limb, edema, frozen shoulder, or kyphosis were excluded from this study. All participants were subjected to full medical history taking, measuring standing height, and measuring the 3 anthropometric parameters (knee height, demi-span and ulnar length) using a metal retractable tape. This study showed that there are significant positive correlations between standing height and other height measurements as knee height, demi-span and ulnar length. The correlation with knee height is stronger than those with demi span and ulnar length. In this study, there was significant difference between measured standing height and predicted height when measured knee height was used to estimate height of Egyptian elderly females using the equations, developed from other populations, such as Malaysian, Mexican, Korean, Swedish, Hispanics, black American, white American and Puerto Ricans.