Anthropometric variables in healthy population usually follow a normal distribution.

Normal Distribution The two keys parameters of the normal distribution are the mean and the standard deviation. The mean is the sum of all the individual measurements divided by the number of measurements. It is measure of central tendency. The standard deviation is calculated using the difference between each individual measurements and the mean. Thus, the value of mean determines the positions of the normal distribution along the x (horizontal) axis. The value of the standard deviation determines the shape of the normal distribution. A small value of the standard deviation indicates that the most of the measurements are close to the mean value (the distribution has a high peak which tails off rapidly at both sides). A large value of the standard deviation means that the measurements are scattered more distantly from the mean. The distribution has a flatter shape. In order to estimate the parameters of stature in a population (the mean and the standard deviation) it is necessary to measure a random sample of people who are representative of that population. Estimates of population parameters obtained from calculations on data samples are known as sample statistics. The mean is calculated using the following formula: M=
X N

where = Sum of X = Individual data points N = Sample size (number of data points) The standard deviation is calculated using the following formula: S2 =
X M 2 n 1

Where = Sum of X = Individual score M = Mean of all scores N = Sample size (number of scores)