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. 2013 Mar 18;3(3):e64.
doi: 10.1038/nutd.2013.5.

DXA estimates of fat in abdominal, trunk and hip regions varies by ethnicity in men

M A Stults-Kolehmainen  1 , P R Stanforth, J B Bartholomew, T Lu, C J Abolt, R Sinha
Affiliations

DXA estimates of fat in abdominal, trunk and hip regions varies by ethnicity in men

M A Stults-Kolehmainen et al. Nutr Diabetes. .

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether the quantity of fat is different across the central (that is, android, trunk) and peripheral (that is, arm, leg and gynoid) regions among young African-American (AA), Asian (AS), Hispanic (HI) and non-Hispanic White (NHW) men.

Subjects and methods: A cohort of 852 men (18-30 years; mean total body fat percent (TBF%)=18.8±7.9, range=3.7-45.4) were assessed for body composition in five body regions via dual-emission X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).

Results: HI men (21.8±8.3) had higher TBF% than AA (17.0±10.0), NHW (17.9±7.2) and AS (18.9±8.0) groups (P-values <0.0001). AS had a lower BMI (23.9±3.4) than all other groups, and NHW (24.7±3.2) had a lower BMI than HI (25.7±3.9) and AA (26.5±4.7; P-values<0.0001). A linear mixed model (LMM) revealed a significant ethnicity by region fat% interaction (P<0.0001). HI men had a greater fat% than NHW for every region (adjusted means (%); android: 29.6 vs 23.3; arm: 13.3 vs 10.6; gynoid: 27.2 vs 23.8; leg: 21.2 vs 18.3; trunk: 25.5 vs 20.6) and a greater fat% than AA for every region except the arm. In addition, in the android and trunk regions, HI had a greater fat% than AS, and AS had a higher fat% than AA. Finally, the android fat% for AS was higher than that of NHW. When comparing the region fat% within ethnicities, the android region was greater than the gynoid region for AS and HI, but did not differ for AA and NHW, and the arm region had the least fat% in all ethnicities.

Conclusions: Fat deposition and body fat patterning varies by ethnicity.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sample DXA scan showing demarcations between body regions generated by enCORE software.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Observed means for four ethnicities/races on region fat%. Each region is different from other regions within ethnicities (P<0.0001) except as indicated by symbols. Regions differ between ethnicities (P<0.01) as marked by symbols. *Difference between AA and HI for leg, trunk, android and gynoid regions. **Difference between AA and AS for trunk and android regions. †Difference between AS and HI for trunk and android regions. ††Difference between AS and NHW for android region. §Difference between HI and NHW for arm, trunk, android, gynoid and trunk regions. §§Difference between HI and NHW for leg region (P<0.001). ^No difference between android and gynoid for AA. ^^No difference between trunk and leg for AA. #No difference between android and gynoid for NHW.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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