A univariate and multivariate examination of measurement error in anthropometry

Abstract

Abstract Replicate anthropometric measurements on 20 male and 22 female Eskimos were examined using analysis of variance, product‐moment correlation coefficients, and canonical variates with Mahalanobis' D 2 distances. Analysis of variance indicated that 12 of the 16 variables could be measured comparably by two investigators. Those variables with readily defined endpoints yielded the highest correlations between the results of two anthropometrists. The multivariate analysis demonstrated a high level of discrimination between two sets of data taken on the same group of subjects. This suggests that population comparisons using data from two or more investigators could be significantly affected by measurement error.