Abstract
Objective:
To investigate the influence of age, sex, ethnicity and total fatness on central obesity in four ethnic populations.
Design:
Cross-sectional analysis of study subjects enrolled from 1993 to 2005.
Subjects:
A multi-ethnic (Caucasian (CA), African-American (AA), Hispanic-American (HA) and Asian (As)) convenience sample of 604 men and 1192 women (aged 18–96 years, body mass index 15.93–45.80 kg/m2).
Measurements:
Total body fat (TBF) and truncal fat were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. General linear regression models were used to test for independent associations with log10-transformed truncal fat.
Results:
For all ethnicities, men had a lower percent body fat and more truncal fat than women. Log10-transformed truncal fat increased with TBF approximately as a square root function. At older ages, there was a greater amount of truncal fat in CA, HA and As men (∼0.20–0.25 kg/decade) with the effect more pronounced in AA men (∼0.33 kg/decade). For women, the increment of truncal fat per decade was reduced in CA and AA women (∼0.07 kg) compared with As and HA women (∼0.33 kg). Adjusted for mean values of covariates in our sample, AA had less truncal fat than As.
Conclusion:
The accumulation of truncal fat is strongly related to age, ethnicity and total fatness in both men and women.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, McDowell MA, Tabak CJ, Flegal KM . Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999–2004. JAMA 2006; 295: 1549–1555.
Haslam DW, James WPT . Obesity. Lancet 2005; 366: 1197–1209.
Folsom AR, Kushi LH, Anderson KE, Mink PJ, Olson JE, Hong CP et al. Associations of general and abdominal obesity with multiple health outcomes in older women: the Iowa Women's Health Study. Arch Intern Med 2000; 160: 2117–2128.
Marcus MA, Murphy L, Pi-Sunyer FX, Albu JB . Insulin sensitivity and serum triglyceride level in obese white and black women: relationship to visceral and truncal subcutaneous fat. Metabolism 1999; 48: 194–199.
Bergman RN, Kim SP, Catalano KJ, Hsu IR, Chiu JD, Kabir M et al. Why visceral fat is bad: mechanisms of the metabolic syndrome. Obesity 2006; 14 (Suppl): 16S–19S.
Wu CH, Yao WJ, Lu FH, Wu JS, Chang CJ . Relationship between glycosylated hemoglobin, blood pressure, serum lipid profiles and body fat distribution in healthy Chinese. Atherosclerosis 1998; 137: 157–165.
Lemieux S, Despres JP, Moorjani S, Nadeau A, Theriault G, Prud'homme D et al. Are gender differences in cardiovascular disease risk factors explained by the level of visceral adipose tissue? Diabetologia 1994; 37: 757–764.
Wu CH, Yao WJ, Lu FH, Yang YC, Wu JS, Chang CJ . Body fat distribution explains the sex differences in cardiovascular dysmetabolic factors in elderly non-diabetics. Age Aging 2001; 30: 331–336.
Berman DM, Rodrigues LM, Nicklas BJ, Ryan AS, Dennis KE, Goldberg AP . Racial disparities in metabolism, central obesity, and sex hormone-binding globulin in postmenopausal women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2001; 86: 97–103.
Okosun IS, Liao Y, Rotimi CN, Prewitt TE, Cooper RS . Abdominal adiposity and clustering of multiple metabolic syndrome in White, Black and Hispanic Americans. Ann Epidemiol 2000; 10: 263–270.
Mott JW, Wang J, Thornton JC, Allison DB, Heymsfield SB, Pierson Jr RN . Relation between body fat and age in 4 ethnic groups. Am J Clin Nutr 1999; 69: 1007–1013.
Chang CJ, Wu CH, Chang CS, Yao WJ, Yang YC, Wu JS et al. Low body mass index but high percent body fat in Taiwanese – implications of obesity cut-offs. Int J Obes 2003; 27: 253–259.
Silver AJ, Guillen CP, Kahl MJ, Morley JE . Effect of aging on body fat. J Am Geriatr Soc 1993; 41: 211–213.
Lee CC, Glickman SG, Dengel DR, Brown MD, Supiano MA . Abdominal adiposity assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry provides a sex-independent predictor of insulin sensitivity in older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2005; 60: 872–877.
Park YW, Allison DB, Heymsfield SB, Gallagher D . Larger amounts of visceral adipose tissue in Asian Americans. Obes Res 2001; 9: 381–387.
Tanaka S, Horimai C, Katsukawa F . Ethnic differences in abdominal visceral fat accumulation between Japanese, African-Americans, and Caucasians: a meta-analysis. Acta Diabetol 2003; 40 (Suppl 1): S302–S304.
Hoffman DJ, Wang Z, Gallagher D, Heymsfield SB . Comparison of visceral adipose tissue mass in adult African Americans and whites. Obes Res 2005; 13: 66–74.
Hill JO, Sidney S, Lewis CE, Tolan K, Scherzinger AL, Stamm ER . Racial differences in amounts of visceral adipose tissue in young adults: the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) study. Am J Clin Nutr 1999; 69: 381–387.
Tittelback TJ, Berman DM, Nicklas BJ, Ryan AS, Goldberg AP . Racial differences in adipocyte size and relationship to the metabolic syndrome in obese women. Obes Res 2004; 12: 990–998.
Conway JM, Yanovski SZ, Avila NA, Hubbard VS . Visceral adipose tissue differences in black and white women. Am J Clin Nutr 1995; 61: 765–771.
Fernandez JR, Heo M, Heymsfield SB, Pierson Jr RN, Pi-Sunyer FX, Wang ZM et al. Is percentage body fat differentially related to body mass index in Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and European Americans? Am J Clin Nutr 2003; 77: 71–75.
Casas YG, Schiller BC, Desouza CA, Seals DR . Total and regional body composition across age in healthy Hispanic and white women of similar socioeconomic status. Am J Clin Nutr 2001; 73: 13–18.
Gallagher D, Visser M, Sepulveda D, Pierson RN, Harris T, Heymsfield SB . How useful is body mass index for comparison of body fatness across age, sex, and ethnic groups? Am J Epidemiol 1996; 143: 228–239.
Wang J, Thornton JC, Burastero S, Shen J, Tanenbaum S, Heymsfield SB et al. Comparisons for body mass index and body fat percent among Puerto Ricans, blacks, whites and Asians living in the New York City area. Obes Res 1996; 4: 377–384.
Deurenberg P, Yap M, van Staveren WA . Body mass index and percent body fat: a meta analysis among different ethnic groups. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1998; 22: 1164–1171.
Okosun IS . Ethnic differences in the risk of type 2 diabetes attributable to differences in abdominal adiposity in American women. J Cardiovasc Risk 2000; 7: 425–430.
Sundquist J, Winkleby MA, Pudaric S . Cardiovascular disease risk factors among older black, Mexican-American, and white women and men: an analysis of NHANES III, 1988–1994. Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. J Am Geriatr Soc 2001; 49: 109–116.
Malis C, Rasmussen EL, Poulsen P, Petersen I, Christensen K, Beck-Nielsen H et al. Total and regional fat distribution is strongly influenced by genetic factors in young and elderly twins. Obes Res 2005; 13: 2139–2145.
He Q, Horlick M, Thornton J, Wang J, Pierson Jr RN, Heshka S et al. Sex and race differences in fat distribution among Asian, African-American, and Caucasian prepubertal children. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2002; 87: 2164–2170.
Ma K, Kotler DP, Wang J, Thornton JC, Ma R, Pierson RN . Reliability of in vivo neutron activation analysis for measuring body composition: comparisons with tracer dilution and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. J Lab Clin Med 1996; 127: 420–427.
Soriano JM, Ioannidou E, Wang J, Thornton JC, Horlick MN, Gallagher D et al. Pencil-beam vs fan-beam dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry comparisons across four systems. J Clin Densitometry 2004; 7: 281–289.
Deurenberg P, Yap M, van Staveren WA . Body mass index and percent body fat: a meta analysis among different ethnic groups. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1998; 22: 1164–1171.
Evans EM, Rowe DA, Racette SB, Ross KM, McAuley E . Is the current BMI obesity classification appropriate for black and white postmenopausal women? Int J Obes 2006; 30: 837–843.
Alberti KG, Zimmet P, Shaw J, IDF Epidemiology Task Force Consensus Group. The metabolic syndrome – a new worldwide definition. Lancet 2005; 366: 1059–1062.
Park YW, Heymsfield SB, Gallagher D . Are dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry regional estimates associated with visceral adipose tissue mass? Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2002; 26: 978–983.
Rosenberg NA, Pritchard JK, Weber JL, Cann HM, Kidd KK, Zhivotovsky LA et al. Genetic structure of human populations. Science 2002; 298: 2381–2385.
Malis C, Rasmussen EL, Poulsen P, Petersen I, Christensen K, Beck-Nielsen H et al. Total and regional fat distribution is strongly influenced by genetic factors in young and elderly twins. Obes Res 2005; 13: 2139–2145.
Gesta S, Blüher M, Yamamoto Y, Norris AW, Berndt J, Kralisch S et al. Evidence for a role of developmental genes in the origin of obesity and body fat distribution. PNAS 2006; 103: 6676–6681.
Novotny R, Daida YG, Grove JS, Marchand LL, Vijayadeva V . Asian adolescents have a higher truncal: peripheral fat ratio than whites. J Nutr 2006; 136: 642–647.
WHO Expert Consultation. Appropriate body-mass index for Asian populations and its implications for policy and intervention strategies. Lancet 2004; 363: 157–163.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NIH DK PO1-42618; DK RO1-37352, RR00645, DK40414; P30 DK-26687; and R29-AG14715.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Contributors. Current study concept: Wang J and Gallagher. Provided data: Albu, Gallagher, Heymsfield, Heshka, Laferrère, Pierson, Pi-Sunyer, Wang J, Wang Z. Analysis and interpretation of data: Wu, Heshka, Gallagher. Critical review of manuscript for intellectual content: Gallagher, Wu, Heshka, Wang J, Wang Z, Albu, Laferrère, Pi-Sunyer. Statistical expertise: Heshka, Wu. Study supervision: Gallagher, Heshka.
Each author declared that she or he has no conflict of financial or personal interests in any company or organization sponsoring this study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wu, CH., Heshka, S., Wang, J. et al. Truncal fat in relation to total body fat: influences of age, sex, ethnicity and fatness. Int J Obes 31, 1384–1391 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803624
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803624
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Contribution of systemic factors on macular vessel density: a sex-specific population-based study
Japanese Journal of Ophthalmology (2024)
-
Different correlation of body mass index with body fatness and obesity-related biomarker according to age, sex and race-ethnicity
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
Updates on Recent Developments in Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension
SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine (2021)
-
DXA estimates of fat in abdominal, trunk and hip regions varies by ethnicity in men
Nutrition & Diabetes (2013)
-
Fat in Android, Trunk, and Peripheral Regions Varies by Ethnicity and Race in College Aged Women
Obesity (2012)