Reliability of the body mass prediction by means of indices

By the body mass indices the density is given, human body has in some abstract skeletal space. This skeletal space has been delimited by means of stature and chest circumference of the subject; these indices can serve not only as the characteristics of body composition, but also as a tool through which the body mass is to evaluate, adequate to the given skeletal space. Eight body mass indices of this kind have been introduced and the prediction formulas studied in our previous papers; besides it the procedure of computation of the prediction reliability has been derived, based on the mean square deviation between the actual and predicted values of body mass in the reference set of subjects. Relative reliability of the particular prediction formulas is depending not only on the sex and age of a subject, but also on the part of the skeletal space into which the subject belongs. The purpose of the study is to search for the rules which enable to optimize the choice of the prediction formula in dependence on the sex, age and skeletal dimensions of the subject, the adequate body mass of whom is to compute.