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TEACHING IN THE LABORATORY

Anthropometric evaluations of body composition of undergraduate students at the University of La Réunion

Biology Department, University of La Réunion, Saint Denis de La Réunion, France

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: E. Bourdon, Université de la Réunion, Laboratoire de Biochimie et Génétique Molêculaire, 15 Ave. René Cassin, BP 7151, 97715 Saint Denis Messag Cedex 09, La Réunion, France (e-mail: emmanuel.bourdon{at}univ-reunion.fr)

A positive correlation is well established between obesity and the susceptibility to develop metabolic syndrome, a multifactorial disease dramatically associated with an enhanced mortality risk in the developed world. A high prevalence of obesity has recently been described at La Réunion Island, a French department in the Indian Ocean. Anthropometry is generally considered as the single most easily obtainable, inexpensive, and noninvasive method that reflects body composition. At the University of La Réunion, a laboratory course involving students was designed to teach anthropometric measurements for the determination of body composition. Using skin fold thickness equations, students determined the fat and total muscular masses of their body composition. The influences of sex and their physical activity or inactivity on these different parameters were compared and interpreted at the end of the course. Positive and significant correlations were established between the students' body mass indexes values and their fat mass percentages and between their fat-free and muscular masses as well. A higher fat mass percentage was found in sedentary students compared with more active ones. Therefore, this laboratory makes the students practice and understand the use of classical techniques to evaluate the body composition of a person. It also alerts them to the correlation between a sedentary attitude and higher body fat content. This laboratory course constitutes an active introduction to a following lesson on more recent and actual techniques used to evaluate body composition.

Key words: obesity; skin fold; fat mass; muscular mass