Cluster analysis of levels of body fatness in children

The purpose of this study was to examine, using cluster analysis, the levels of body fatness as defined in the current national programs for children and youth fitness. A total of 1,056 examinees were drawn randomly from the published data of the National Children and Youth Fitness Study II, with 525 boys and 531 girls, ages 6 to 9 years. Their triceps and medial calf skinfold measures were used for the cluster analysis, including both the kth nearest-neighbor and the Ward's minimum variance procedures. Although multimodal clusters were found at four age groups according to the kth nearest-neighbor procedure, the Ward procedure and plotting of these clusters did not support their existence. It was concluded that the levels of body fatness reported in the current national children and youth fitness programs were arbitrarily defined.