Stimulating and up to date, this book is a distinctive reference for pediatricians, nutritionists, anthropologists, exercise and sport scientists as well as sport medicine specialists.

Physical fitness affects our ability to function and be active. At poor levels, it is associated with such health outcomes as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Physical fitness testing in American youth was established on a large scale in the 1950s with an early focus on performance-related fitness that gradually gave way to an emphasis on health-related fitness. Using appropriately selected measures to collected fitness data in youth will advance our understanding of how fitness among youth translates into better health. In Fitness Measures and Health Outcomes in Youth, the IOM assesses the relationship between youth fitness test items and health outcomes, recommends the best fitness test items, provides guidance for interpreting fitness scores, and provides an agenda for needed research. The report concludes that selected cardiorespiratory endurance, musculoskeletal fitness, and body composition measures should be in fitness surveys and in schools. Collecting fitness data nationally and in schools helps with setting and achieving fitness goals and priorities for public health at an individual and national level.

ACSM's Body Composition Assessment provides practicing fitness, health, and medical professionals with information about various body composition measurement methods in clinical and field settings--evidence-based protocols, advantages, sources of measurement error, and more.

This volume is a review of up-to-date methods used in human growth research. Aimed at junior and senior researchers in human biology, anthropology, epidemiology and pediatrics involved in the analysis of normal and pathological growth and development data, it focuses on concepts, possibilities, limitations and applications.

The 2nd edition of Human Body Composition includes updated information and new chapters. The editors and 35 contributors are well respected researchers in the field of body composition science. This is one of few texts that provides comprehensive coverage of body composition research. The primary intent is to present current information on research methods. This book can serve as a textbook for those who are students or new researchers. Descriptions of various methods and background information are imparted in great detail with numerous references. New chapters address energy expenditure, animal body composition, molecular genetics and body composition as it relates to disease states of cancer, HIV, obesity and certain inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This book is recommended for students and new researchers in the field of body composition research who need to learn various methods, histories and practical applications--Publisher's description.

". . . a useful and long-needed stand-alone clinical manual for nutritional assessment." ---American Journal of Physical Anthropology This is a revised and updated 2nd edition of Anthropometric Standards for the Assessment of Growth and Nutritional Status. The data is based on the most recent available from the government (2003), and reflects the demographic change in the U.S. The easy-to-use tables and graphs have been expanded from age 2 months to 90 years. Designed for physicians, medical students, pediatricians, family doctors, and nutritionists interested in the physical growth and development of adults and children, this book presents in one volume the compilation of the largest database of material on anthropometric standards from National Health Examination surveys. Because the information is presented in tabular and graphic form, medical investigators can easily compare and interpret their findings with the collection of normative values. No other book is as inclusive, as soundly based, or as potentially useful to people interested in nutrition, cardiovascular diseases, anthropometry, and epidemiology. This is a resource that no health care worker should be without. A compact disc (CD) is included with the book for interactive evaluation of nutritional anthropometry in order to determine an individual's percentile and Z-score of the measurements of body size and composition. The CD is divided into three sections: Section 1 is based on anthropometric data source derived from the 3rd National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted during 1994-98. Section 2 is based on weight, height, and body-mass index information developed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for children ages 2 months to 20 years. Section 3 contains information developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) on weight and length for children ranging in age from birth to 5 years. All three sections are presented in Excel spreadsheets formatted to allow calculation of age- and sex-specific Z-scores and percentiles directly without the need for additional computer programs or software. A. Roberto Frisancho is Thurnau Professor of Anthropology at University of Michigan.

Throughout the developed world there is an increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. This book provides sport, exercise and medicine students and professionals with an accessible and practical guide to understanding and managing childhood and adolescent obesity.