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ESTIMATING THE SURFACE AREA OF THE HUMAN BODY
Author(s) -
BAILEY B. J. R.,
BRIARS G. L.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
statistics in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.996
H-Index - 183
eISSN - 1097-0258
pISSN - 0277-6715
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0258(19960715)15:13<1325::aid-sim233>3.0.co;2-k
Subject(s) - body surface area , surface (topology) , statistics , mathematics , logarithm , confidence interval , standard error , body weight , standard deviation , mathematical analysis , geometry , medicine , surgery
A number of formulae have been suggested for estimating the surface area (SA) of a human body from measurements of height H and weight W . Most of these are of the same functional form, namely ln SA = a 0 + a 1 ln H + a 2 ln W in logarithmic terms, but have quite different values of the coefficients. We show that they are all essentially equivalent in view of the strong linear relation between ln H and ln W . The formula due to Gehan and George, in which a 0 = −3⋅751, a 1 = 0⋅422 and a 2 = 0⋅515 if height is measured in cm, weight in kg and surface area in m 2 , is based on a sample of 401 surface area measurements and has coefficients estimated by least squares. It should be the medical standard. Moreover, by extending their analysis, it is possible to derive standard errors of surface area estimates and to construct confidence and prediction intervals. Unfortunately, in clinical practice a relation based on just nine subjects, and with coefficients determined in an ad hoc way, is still in common use.