Abstract
Background:
In clinical settings, it is common to measure weight of clothed patients and estimate a correction for the weight of clothing, but we can find no papers in the medical literature regarding the variability in clothing weight of adults with weather, season and gender.
Methods:
Fifty adults (35 women) were weighed four times during a 12-month period with and without clothing. Clothing weights were determined and regressed against minimum, maximum and average daily outdoor temperature.
Results:
The average clothing weight (±s.d.) throughout the year was significantly greater in men than in women (1.2±0.3 vs 0.8±0.3 kg, P<0.0001). The average within-person minimum and the average within-person maximum clothing weights across the year were 0.9±0.2 and 1.5±0.4 kg for men, and 0.5±0.2 and 1.1±0.4 kg for women, respectively. The within-person s.d. in clothing weight was 0.3 kg for both men and women. Over the 55 °C range in the lowest to the highest outdoor temperatures, the regressions predicted a maximal change in clothing weight of only 0.4 kg in women and 0.6 kg in men.
Conclusion:
The clothing weight of men is significantly greater than that of women, but there is little variability throughout the year. Therefore, a clothing adjustment of approximately 0.8 kg for women and 1.2 kg for men is appropriate regardless of outdoor temperature.
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References
Tuan T, Marsh DR, Ha TT, Schroeder DG, Thach TD, Dung VM et al. Weighing vietnamese children: how accurate are child weights adjusted for estimates of clothing weight? Food Nutr Bull 2002; 23: 48–52.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this study was provided by the Beers-Murphy Clinical Nutrition Clinic.
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Whigham, L., Schoeller, D., Johnson, L. et al. Effect of clothing weight on body weight. Int J Obes 37, 160–161 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2012.20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2012.20
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