Estimation of body fat from skinfold thickness.

The fat content of the human body has physiological and medical importance. It may influence morbidity and mortality, it may affect the ability to withstand exposure to cold and starvation, and it may alter the effectiveness of drugs and anaesthetics. It may also be the cause of reduced insulin sensitivity in some population groups. Thus, the measurement of the total body fat provides useful information. A computer program, written in quick basic language, was developed, to compute the equivalent fat content, as a percentage of body-weight, for a range of values for the sum of the four skinfolds, of Egyptian males and females of different ages. This is based on a table developed by Durnin and Womersley. The computer program was run using skinfolds of Egyptian males and females of different ages. Satisfactory results were obtained. This program can be used to calculate the total body fat with relative ease and reasonable accuracy. This should make it of common use in many fields of medicine, physiology, nutrition and anthropology, particularly in population studies comprising a large number of subjects.