The anthropometrical measurements have been widely utilized to follow children's development, in the verification of the adaptations to the physical training in the athletes' selection, in studies of ethnic characterization, among others. The control of the precision and accuracy of the measurements will result in more reliable data. The objective of the present study was to diffuse the strategies to compute the technical error of measurement (TEM) according to Kevin Norton's and Tim Olds methodology (2000) and to analyze the laboratory' trainees performance. Three beginner observers (anthropometrists) of the Exercise Physiology Laboratory (Labofise) of the University of Brazil were analyzed. They accomplished measures of skin folds thickness (Cescorf, 0.1 mm) in nine different anthropometric points in 35 volunteers (25.45 ± 9.96 years). To accomplish the measures the International Society for Advancement in Kinanthropometry (ISAK) was adopted. For the TEM intra-evaluator verification, the measures were accomplished in the same volunteers in two different days and, to obtain the inter-observers TEM, the measures were accomplished in a same group of volunteers, in the same day by the three evaluators. The results indicated not acceptable TEMs only for two evaluators in the intra-evaluator analysis. The other TEMs reached acceptable results. Not acceptable TEMs demonstrated the need of technical training of evaluators in order to minimize the variability verified.
Precision; Anthropometrical measurements; Intra-evaluators; Inter-evaluators
