BODY-WEIGHT ESTIMATION OF ELDERLY PATIENTS BY NOMOGRAM

OBJECTIVE To determine a safe and easy way to estimate body weight (BW) accurately in nonambulant elderly patients. DESIGN An anthropometric study of ambulant patients. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred eleven ambulant inpatients, 108 males and 103 females. SETTING Inpatient departments of the University Department of Geriatric Medicine, Cardiff, Wales, UK. MEASUREMENTS Skinfold thickness of chin, triceps, forearm, wrist, subscapular, sternal angle, waist, suprailiac, knee, and calf; circumference of arm, forearm, thigh and calf; body weight, chest girth, abdominal girth, upper limb length, leg length, and body weight. Measurements were carried out by means of Harpenden Skin-Fold Caliper, tape measure, and bathroom scale. RESULTS Measured body weight in males was highly correlated with bath arm circumference and chest girth. In females, measured body weight was highly correlated with waist skinfold thickness and thigh circumference. Nomograms for weight estimation in males and females were constructed from the regression equations for these measurements. CONCLUSIONS Convenient estimation of body weight in nonambulant patients may be carried out using nomograms, which, themselves, may be used as progress sheets to assess the effect of dietary supplementation on body weight.