Anthropometry involves measuring body size, weight, and proportions to evaluate health, development, and nutritional status. Key anthropometric measurements include length/recumbent length for infants under 2 years old, stature/standing height for those over 2, head circumference, and weight. These measurements require specialized equipment and positioning of the subject to ensure accuracy. Nonambulatory individuals may require alternative methods of measurement.

2. Description
• It is the measurement of body size, weight,
• and proportions.
• Measures obtained from anthropometry can
be sensitive indicators of health, development,
and growth in infants and children.
• Anthropometric measures can be used to
evaluate nutritional status.

3. Measurements
• Length
• Length (also referred to as recumbent length) is
obtained with the subject lying down, in a supine or
face-up position, and generally is reserved for children
up to 24 months of age or for children who cannot
stand erectly without assistance
• Measurement of recumbent length requires a special
measuring device with a stationary headboard and
moveable footboard that are perpendicular to the
backboard.
• The device’s measuring scale (in millimeters or inches)
should have its zero end at the edge of the headboard
and allow the child’s length to be read from the
footboard

5. Stature
• Stature, or standing height, can be measured for
subjects 2 to 3 years of age and older who are
cooperative and able to stand without assistance.
• Stature can be measured in several ways. The
simplest is to fasten a measuring stick or
nonstretchable tape measure to a flat, vertical
surface (for example, a wall) and use a right-angle
headboard for reading the measurement.
• If a wall is used, it should not have a thick
baseboard, and the subject should not stand on
carpet, which could affect the accuracy of
measurements

6. Cont….
• Another approach is to use a stadiometer.
• The subject should stand with heels together,
arms to the side, legs straight, shoulders
relaxed, and head in the Frankfort horizontal
plane (“look straight ahead”).
• Heels, buttocks, scapulae (shoulder blades),
and back of the head should, if possible, be
against the vertical surface of the stadiometer

8. Cont…
• Some people may not be able to touch all four
points against the stadiometer because of
obesity, protruding buttocks, or curvature of
the spine.
• Rather than creating an embarrassing
situation by trying to force a subject into a
physically impossible position, have the
subject touch two or three of the four points
to the vertical surface of the stadiometer

9. Nonambulatory Persons
• In nonambulatory persons (those unable to
walk) or those who have such severe spinal
curvature that measurement of height would
be inaccurate, stature can be estimated from
knee height

10. Head Circumference
• Head circumference measurement is an
important screening procedure to detect
abnormalities of head and brain growth,
especially in the first year of life.
• Head circumference increases rapidly during
the first 12 months of life but, by 36 months,
growth is much slower.
• Head circumference-for-age can be evaluated
using a suitable pediatric growth chart

11. Cont….
• Head circumference is most easily measured
when the infant or child is sitting on the lap of the
caregiver, although older children can be
measured when they are standing.
• A flexible, nonstretchable measuring tape is
required.
• The lower edge of the tape should be positioned
just above the eyebrows, above (not over) the
ears, and around the back of the head, so that
the maximum circumference is measured.
• The tape should be in the same plane on both
sides of the head

13. Measuring Weight
• Weight is an important variable in equations
predicting caloric expenditure and in indices
of body composition.
• Measured accurately with electronic balance

15. Cares
• Infants can be weighed nude, or the weight of the infant’s
diaper can be subtracted from the infant’s weight.
• The infant should be set lying down in the middle of the
pan.
• Excessive infant movement can make it difficult to obtain
an accurate weight, in which case the weighing can be
deferred
• Children and adults who can stand without assistance are
weighed on a platform electronic scale.
• The
• subject should stand still in the middle of the scale’s
platform without touching anything and with the body
weight equally distributed on both feet.

16. • Diurnal variations (cyclical changes occurring
throughout the day) in weight of about 1 kg in
children and 2 kg in adults are known to occur.
• In settings requiring a high degree of accuracy,
subjects can be clothed in an examination
gown of known weight

17. Nonambulatory Persons
• Persons who cannot stand unassisted on a
scale can be weighed in a bed scale or
wheelchair scale.