Hibbert et al developed equations for predicting height in Australian children based on gender and arm span. This can help estimate height in a child for whom height cannot be directly measured due to deformity or disease. The authors are from the University of Melbourne and the Royal Children's Hospital in Australia.
Subjects: male and female children aged 8 to 18 years
Parameters:
(1) arm span in meters (based on lateral abduction of arms at 90° to trunk with fingers outstretched, from tip of middle finger to tip of middle finger; measured in centimeters but converted to meters)
(2) gender
height for girls in meters =
= (0.915 * (arm span in meters)) + 0.131
height for boys in meters =
= (0.911 * (arm span in meters)) + 0.132
where:
• Age was found to have only a minor impact on the height estimates.
For most situations the arm span alone was a reasonable estimate of height. On page 657 the author states that the mean arm span to height ratio was 0.999 for girls and 1.006 for boys over the age range. According Figure 3 (page 659) the arm span to height ratio is around 0.99 for 8 year olds then slowly rises with age.
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