Overweight and fatness in Dalmatia, Croatia: comparison with the U.S. population reference

Subscapular skinfold, elbow breadth and upper arm indicators of nutritional status were studied in the population of Dalmatia in Croatia. Age- and sex-specific percentiles were obtained from 4373 subjects, 18 to 74 years of age, and compared to the U.S. NHANES I and II reference data. There were significant differences between these data sets in all studied variables. The results complement those reported previously for BMI and triceps skinfold and indicate that high prevalence of overweight in Dalmatians largely reflects their muscularity and skeletal robustness rather than excess body fatness. The findings suggest that the U.S. upper percentiles of BMI and skinfolds are inadequate for the assessment of excess body fatness in Dalmatian population. The obtained population-specific percentile distributions should be used provisionally as the reference data for group comparisons in the Dalmatian region.