Population estimates of height and weight in Great Britain at ages 11 and 15, 1983 and ages 16-19 inclusive, 1980.

Abstract

Height and weight tables for adults in Great Britain were published in this journal in 1985. A similarly representative sample, at ages 11 and 15, has become available as the result of a survey of schoolchildren's diets. The opportunity has been taken of linking the results of the two surveys, both of which were conducted by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys for the Department of Health and Social Security, using the same measuring techniques. Quetelet indices have been calculated for these data at each age, using a method that depends only on knowing the means and standard deviations of the heights and weights, and on their covariance. Limits are derived within which 95% and 80% of the populations lie.