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Biomedical subjects

S M Garn

Publications and source records attributed to S M Garn.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

The bony chest breadth as a frame size standard in nutritional assessment.

As shown in 2201 males from western Scotland, the roentgenogrammetric bony chest breadth measurements provide a useful indication of frame size. Bony chest breadth is more highly correlated with weight than is true for stature. Weight corrections approximate 3.7 kg/cm of bony chest breadth and weight differences of 12 kg separate the average weight of males in the "small," "medium," and "large" bony chest breadth categories, respectively. Virtually unrelated to fatness per se, the bony chest breadth measurement provides a useful indication of fat free mass and, expressed as the weight/bony chest breadth ratio, it provides an independent estimate of relative fatness. Differences in frame size as measured by the bony chest breadth also relate to the 16-yr cardiovascular mortality.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

Reproductive histories of low weight girls and women.

As shown in 79,000 girls and women participating in four different surveys, low body weight (less than or equal to 47.2 kg) does not prevent the attainment of menarche, conception, or even repeated conceptions. Indeed, low body weight is especially common in early maturing girls and in Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans. From these data, the concept of a "critical weight" for menarche is difficult to substantiate, although low body weight does have nutritional implications and is the second most important factor in regulating fetal growth.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Fatness and mortality in the West of Scotland.

Sixteen-yr mortality data for 2381 males between the ages of 45 to 75 from the West of Scotland show that the lean rather than the obese have a higher mortality rate. However, analyzed by cause of death, it is seen that lean individuals show an excess of cancer-related deaths while obese individuals show excess cardiovascular mortality. Comparing smoking and nonsmoking males, the deleterious effects of smoking are clearly demonstrable at all fatness levels. Since obese males have a higher cardiovascular mortality and lean males show an excess of cancer-related deaths, the notion of a single "ideal weight" may be challenged.

Aged↗
PubMed1983

The volume of the sella turcica in children: new standards.

Measurement of the sella turcica is valuable in the assessment of a variety of pituitary and other conditions. The volume, a more reliable measurement than sellar area, has been difficult to interpret for lack of adequate standards. This study presents mean and 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles for sellar volume in normal children aged 6-16 years on the basis of measurements in 960 sets of skull radiographs made for orthodontic purposes. Sellar volumes are plotted against chronologic age, and against skeletal age for the 62% of measurements for which a simultaneous bone age determination had been made. As expected, the sellar volume increases with age: for example, mean volume for a boy 5 years 9 months to 6 years 8 months is 228 mm3, for a boy 15 years 9 months to 16 years 8 months is 640 mm3. For most age groups, sellar volume in males is greater than in females. Tenth and ninetieth percentiles for sellar volume are widely separated, giving a wide range of normal. Nevertheless they should be useful in assessing sellar volume in clinical situations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Problems of sampling and inference in the study of fluctuating dental asymmetry.

Randomly distributed or "fluctuating" dental asymmetry has been accorded evolutionary meaning and interpreted as a result of environmental stress. However, except for congenital malformation syndromes, the determinants of human crown size asymmetry are still equivocal. Both a computer simulated sampling experiment using a combined sample size of N = 3000, and the requirements of adequate statistical power show that sample sizes of several hundred are needed to detect population differences in dental asymmetry. Using the largest available sample of children with defined prenatal stresses, we are unable to find systematic increases in crown size asymmetry. Given sampling limitations and the current inability to link increased human dental asymmetry to defined prenatal stresses, we suggest that fluctuating dental asymmetry is not yet established as a useful and reliable measure of general stress in human populations.

Body Height↗
PubMed1982

Taxonomic identification of human fat patterns.

The utility of taxonomic approaches in identification of fat patterning was evaluated using hierarchical cluster analysis on a sample of 64 female and 31 male subjects from 18 to 29 years of age. Four clusters, each composed of subjects with similar distributions of 17 skinfold thicknesses corrected for sex, size and total body fat, showed mean pattern profiles that variously contrasted fatness of the trunk and extremities. Average anthropometric differences between clusters corroborated differences in pattern profile. For comparison, principal-components analysis was carried out on these same data. The results suggest that a taxonomic approach offers advantages in initial interpretation and in design flexibility.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1982

Comparison of the Benn index and other body mass indices in nutritional assessment.

As shown in 58,468 individuals, representing 10 different samples from four different surveys, the "Benn" index (weight/heightp) is highly correlated with other body mass measures that use weight and height, with values of r as high as 0.98 with weight alone. Comparing the Benn index and other body mass indices with four different skinfold measurements (triceps, subscapular, iliac, and abdominal) on 1933 males and 2136 females, correlations involving the Benn (weight/heightp) index were marginally superior to those with weight (by 0.09) and only fractionally superior to those with height/weight (by 0.04). Under the circumstances it is not evident that the population-specific exponent p in the Benn index conveys a material advantage in nutritional assessment.

Anthropometry↗
PubMed1981

Effect of maternal cigarette smoking on Apgar scores.

As shown in a total of 43,492 live-born singleton infants, the proportion of low and depressed Apgar scores is related to the extent of maternal cigarette usage during pregnancy. In particular, the three-pack level of smoking (41 to 60 cigarettes per day) is reflected in a near-quadrupling of low and depressed one-minute and five-minute Apgar scores in both blacks and whites and also after exclusion of prematurely born infants.

Apgar Score↗
PubMed1981

The growth of growth.

Over a 40-year period, 1940 through the present, human growth research has increased for a minimal to a major part of physical anthropology. Such research, originally conducted at the major American growth centers, has become more diverse and more specialized, extending to National Probability Samplings, nutritional surveys, studies of twins, investigations restricted to the craniofacial complex, and studies of the growth and development of various primate species. Besides extending knowledge of growth and development in general and control mechanisms in particular, there has been major feedback into physical anthropology affording far greater understanding of human variability, ot taxonomic differences, and of changes previously believed to be phylogenetic in nature. To the larger extent, all physical anthropologists have some degree of growth awareness.

Anthropology, Physical↗
PubMed1981

Effect of remaining family members on fatness prediction.

As shown first by stepwise multiple correlations and then by family "sets" the probability that a parent or a child will be obese is a direct function of the fatness level of remaining family members. For a four-member nuclear family the probability that one member will be obese is well below chance expectancy (i.e., 12.6%) if the remaining three members are all lean and far higher (i.e., 40.7%) if the remaining family members are all obese. While mothers follow family line fatness expectancy, there is an excess of obese mothers in lean nuclear families, consistent with the inverse relationship between adult female fatness and socioeconomic status.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Differential fatness gain of low income boys and girls.

As shown in 564 girls and 553 boys followed for a period of 18 yr, long-term gain in both subscapular and triceps skinfold thickness was higher in children of lower family income level than those of higher family incomes. This differential fatness gain accounts for the socioeconomic "reversal" of fatness in the female shown in cross-sectional studies and newly extends the phenomenon to both sexes. The finding that low-income children show a greater long-term increase in fatness bears on the prevention and control of obesity.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1981

Income matched black-white hemoglobin differences after correction for low transferrin saturations.

As shown in 3321 age-matched pairs of black and white participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES I) the magnitude of difference in hemoglobin approximates 0.73 g/dl both before and after exclusion of low transferrin saturation values (i.e., equal to or less than 15%). These new income-matched, age-matched comparisons of individuals of the same sex provide a useful estimate of the magnitude of the hemoglobin difference between American blacks and whites.

Adolescent↗