Potential defaults of anthropometric assessment parameters during pregnancy

Abstract

Pregnancy is one of the most common life events, surprisingly little systematic and scientific information is available in the literature when considering anthropometrics. Studies regarding the pregnant’s body size variation, namely for the design of clothes during gestation are quit common. But anthropometrics is a lot more, it is also a science that aids in characterizing the body morphology and composition of humans. There are standard data of anthropometric parameters for specific populations, however, it doesn’t seem to exist any specific values or data for pregnant women. Neither the indication to use the standard values is mentioned or stated. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to evaluate if the default data and the current anthropometric tools are appropriate to be used on pregnant women. In this study, we analysed and evaluated the morphologic characterization and the body composition of pregnant women using existing anthropometric restricted profile methods. The tools considered in this study were: Body Mass Index, Somatotype, Conicity Index, AbdominalHip Ratio and Waist-Height Ratio. Some tools do not demonstrate efficiency in the anthropometric evaluation such as Body Mass Index by placing the pregnant women within risk levels that do not correspond to reality. However, other methods are plausible to be used, such as Conicity, Index Abdominal-Hip and Waist-Height Ratios were the values obtained within the expected range. In conclusion, the existing anthropometric tools need further study when characterizing pregnant women. DOI: https:/doi.org/10.24243/JMEB/2.5.176 2018. Published by Rational Publication. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. Research Article