Skin-fold thickness andreproducibility of the skin-roll test: V?g? study

摘要

In the V?g? study of headache epidemiology, the “skinrolltest” was carried out at the top (“arch”) of the shouldergirdle. For this purpose, a skin caliper (Servier, Leiden) wasused. A total of 1796 parishioners aged 18–65 years (51% women)was examined. A repeat test was also carried out. The skin-rolltest consists of two components: measurement of skin-foldthickness and assessment of the pain level. The average archskinfold thickness on the right side, was 15.0 (SD=5.9 mm;range, 3–60) and was significantly lower in men (mean, 13.8 mm)than in women (16.1 mm). Among the subjects without headache(n=246), the average skin-fold thickness was 14.3 (SD=5.7 mm).Immediately repeating the test revealed a measurement error>3 mm in 1.1% of cases. Asymmetry in the shoulder arch areaexceeded the measurement error in 6.1% of the cases. Theskin-fold thickness at an anterior site in the shoulder area wasalways less than that at the shoulder arch.