Original Article Relationship between arm span and height among elderly persons in a rural area of Ballabgarh, Haryana Limalemla Jamir, Mani Kalaivani*, Baridalyne Nongkynrih, Puneet Misra, Sanjeev Kumar Gupta Centre for Community Medicine and *Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Corresponding author: Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, Professor of Community Medicine, Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi– 110029, India. Ph.: +91-11-26594218, +91-9868528573, E-mail: sgupta_91@yahoo.co.in Received: 03-12-2012 | Accepted: 11-06-2013 | Published Online: 16-06-2013 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) Confict of interest: None declared | Source of funding: Nil | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7713/ijms.2013.0025 Abstract Background: Population ageing warrants study of the health of the elderly. Height, which is an important parameter in assessing nutritional status, pulmonary function, etc. cannot be measured accurately in elderly persons due to degenerative and postural changes. Objective: To study whether arm span measurement can be used as a substitute for height in the elderly. Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among elderly persons aged 60 years and above (n=528), residing in Ballabgarh Block, District Faridabad, Haryana, India. Height and arm span were measured, and presented as Mean (±SD) by age and gender. Associations were tested using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coeffcient (r), and linear regression analysis. Results: Arm span correlated well with height in all age-groups (correlation coeffcient ‘r’ ranged from 0.90 to 0.93, p<0.0001). Arm span was signifcantly more than height across all age-groups. Males were taller and had longer arm span than females. Scatter plots revealed linear relationships between height and arm span. Conclusion: There is a high correlation between arm span and height among elderly persons. Arm span measurement can be used as a substitute for height in elderly persons. Key words: Aged; anthropometry; arm span; body height; gender. Introduction The elderly population in India comprises 7.4% (75.9 million) of the total population and it is projected to rise further to 8.9% (113 million) by 2016 [1]. Increased lifespan brings longer lifetime exposure to disease-causing agents, thereby adversely affecting the health of elderly persons [2]. A practical and inexpensive way to assess health status is by anthropometry. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Expert Committee recommends collection of anthropometric data of adults aged 60 years and above and to monitor their health through anthropometric surveys [3]. It is also non- invasive and easily applied [4]. Height is required to derive body mass index, creatinine height index, and to estimate basal energy expenditure [5]. Epidemiological surveys and pulmonary function tests also require height data [6]. Particularly in developing countries, it may refect longstanding under-nutrition, which may have continued into old age [7]. However, height is diffcult to measure accurately in the elderly due to increased spinal curvature and postural problems. Studies have shown that arm span highly correlates with height and can be used as its substitute [8-14]. However, there are large anthropometric variations between populations [3]. Gender and age-specifc data from local populations 248 Indian Journal of Medical Specialities, Vol. 4, No. 2, July - Dec 2013 INDIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SPECIALITIES 2013;4(2):248-253