SSR is the standard instrument for measuring body-shape. It is pretty crude anthropometry and I doubt you could work out a worthwhile proxy. I would stick with the standard SSR because we have standardised procedures for measuring it developed to reduce errors and it will allow comparison between populations. It may be possible to develop new methods based on digital photography. I have not heard of anyone doing this but the technology to do this is available. If you would like to pursue this then let me know ... I think that digital photographs could be used to calculate body surface area which is VERY difficult to measure directly.

I was wondering if I could work out a measure with the data I have... I doubt I'll go for the digital photographs method but I'll come back to you if end up needing it. Thanks.

Remind me ... what data do you have? Is it just the standard anthropometry of weight, height, MUAC, oedema, age, and sex? If that is the case then you have no way of getting a proxy for body shape. If, however, you have armspan or knee-height then you have something that might be a proxy for limb-length ... you might (e.g.) be able to build an index with something like (height - 2 * knee-height) / height or (height - demispan) / height. It would not be SSR but it might be good enough. Digital photography might be a way of doing research surveys which include SSR in the future.

It is only standard anthropometry and morbitity data... Thanks anyway!