Uses of anthropometry in the elderly in the field setting with notes on screening in developing countries

A field setting can be defined as any setting outside of a fixed, permanent, and sophisticated health facility or research laboratory. The most important applications of anthropometry at field level include biological anthropology, epidemiology, clinical application, and metabolic research. Data collecting in the field setting requires different levels of accuracy and precision; the standardization should also consider intra- and inter-observer variability due to the possibility of more than one observer participating in a given survey. A field setting, in contrast to the laboratory setting, involves special conditions that challenge the application of anthropometry. The required equipment is different and the conditions of data collection are less rigorous. Issues intrinsic to the target group - of education, culture and sophistication - might be limiting factors for carrying out anthropometric surveys in field settings. Another issue is related to interpretation of the biological, nutritional and health significance of anthropometric findings in relationship to the elderly. Uncertainty regarding the accuracy of chronological age, and geography and differential survival of the elderly should be considered when designing a survey. In addition, because the majority of the elderly now live in developing countries, short stature should be a common finding in the age groups from these regions. It is in these short-stature elderly populations, that there is a problem interpreting and applying anthropometric norms or references for height or weight derived from elderly populations of developed countries. In conclusion, although the application of anthropometry to the field setting is feasible, given its enormous importance to gerontological biology, nutrition and health, researchers should consider a series of factors and paradigms when designing and carrying out anthropometric surveys at the field level.