Anthropometry of elderly people living in Northeast of Brazil

OBJECTIVE: Characterizing elderly people characterizing elderly people by anthropometric measures and providing reference values according to the sex and the age group. METHODS: We evaluated 359 elderly people of both sexes from the Northeast of Brazil. The anthropometric variables studied were: weight, height, body mass index, arm circumference, triceps skinfold thickness and arm muscle circumference. Data are shown as mean values ± standard deviations, and percentiles (10th, 15th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 85th and 90th). We used the Student's t test to analyze the means differences between both sexes and the analysis of variances (ANOVA) to evaluate the effect of age on the anthropometric data. RESULTS: The average values of the variables were higher for males, except BMI, AC, and TST . The average differences of the BMI and AC between both sexes were not statistically significant. The elderlies age showed to be an important factor in the reduction of some variables, what ratify the necessity of specifics standard references for the elderly people CONCLUSION: The decreasing trend of anthropometric data of this study is similar to others conducted with an elderly in the elderly population. Thus, these values can help the nutritional assessment and contribute to the development of an anthropometric reference standard for the elderly people in Brazil.