Prediction and measurement of frame size in young adult males

The assessment of frame size is a problematic and ambiguous area. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of agreement between various techniques of assessing frame size in a group of 27 healthy and active men aged 18-24 years, and also to assess which anthropometric variables were best associated with a measure of actual frame size (AFS) which is proposed in this study. Actual frame size was measured by the summation of a series of bone breadths, lengths and depths on a sub-sample of 17 men. The results of the study revealed substantial discordance between methods of assessing frame size. The variables which correlated most highly with AFS (P < 0.01) were body mass, ankle breadth, hand length and chest breadth, respectively. These variables were also positively correlated (P < 0.01) with fat-free mass (FFM), with no significant correlation with fat mass in either case. Of the various documented methods used to assess frame size, the 'HAT' technique, which incorporates biacromial and bitrochanteric breadths, was more highly correlated with AFS than both elbow breadth (currently used in height-weight insurance tables) and the height/wrist circumference index. The latter measure was not highly correlated with AFS, body mass and FFM in this study. It was concluded that ankle breadth and hand length may be better predictors of frame size in young men than other bone dimensions. In addition, the results of this preliminary investigation have substantiated the potential viability of an AFS model. Future research using this technique is recommended to determine true indicators of frame size in a larger and more heterogeneous population.