Optimum weights for commercial divers.

Area of Science:

• Diving Medicine
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Obesity is a known risk factor for decompression sickness.
• Current height-weight tables used to assess diver fitness may be inappropriate for commercial divers.
• Existing tables are based on general populations and may not accurately reflect divers' body composition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the suitability of existing height-weight tables for commercial divers.
• To determine if current obesity standards accurately identify divers at risk.
• To highlight the need for updated reference standards for divers.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of weight measurements from 1520 divers in the Decompression Sickness Central Registry.
• Comparison of diver weight data against a commonly used American height-weight table (1935-53).

Main Results:

• Divers, as a group, are substantially heavier than the populations on which standard height-weight tables are based.
• Using a 1935-53 American table, up to 13.6% of divers may be incorrectly classified as overweight.
• Existing tables may lead to the exclusion of fit divers or the inclusion of at-risk individuals.

Conclusions:

• Published height-weight tables are unsuitable for assessing obesity in commercial divers.
• There is a critical need for more recent and relevant height-weight data specific to divers.
• Alternative or refined obesity measurements may be necessary for accurate diver fitness assessments.