Hip Ratios Case Study

1. The potential errors for body mass index (BMI) is that the measurement does not separate how much weight is fat or lean body mass. For example, a muscular person could have a higher BMI but more muscle mass and could be falsely described as obese. Some potential errors in a waist to hip ratio depends on the individual. An individual may be pear shaped, which are people that have a larger hip compared to waist. In addition, an individual who has an apple shaped body, which are people that have a larger waist compared to hip. This can decrease the validity of the waist to hip ratio because an individual may have a higher number on either the waist or hip depending on the body shape.

2. The risk stratifications for body mass index (BMI) is

The measurements between the evaluators were similar numbers with all measurements within 2mm. The skinfold measurement turned out to be reproducible because the numbers between the evaluators were less than 2mm difference for all measurements. This suggests the skinfold measure can be reliable because the measurement could be reproduced between different evaluators. However, the reliability from the results in table 1 may not correlate with the skill required to obtain and separate the adipose tissue from the muscle.

2. The potential sources of error for a skinfold measurement are the evaluator may not obtain just the adipose tissue but part of the muscle as well, which will decrease accuracy. Also, the evaluator may not obtain all of the adipose tissue present, which will decrease accuracy of measurements as

The most reliable body composition measurements would be body mass index and waist to hip ratio because it can be reproduced easily between individuals with small amounts of error since the body composition measurement is decisive numbers (weight, height, waist circumference and hip circumference). While the skinfold measurement would be the least reliable of the three measurements because the reliability would depend on the skill of the evaluator and whether the evaluator can separate adipose tissue from muscle accurately. On the other hand, the skinfold test would be the most valid within the body composition measurements since body composition is used to determine percentage of fat and muscle within an individual. Therefore, the skin fold measurements are used to determine body fat percentage while body mass index is used to create definitions of overweight and obesity. Also, waist to hip ratio would not be as valid because it is used to correlate with an increase in heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and gallbladder disease compared to measuring body