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Relation between body composition and age in healthy Japanese subjects

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 55, pages 462–470 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective: To describe the relation between body composition and age measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) in healthy Japanese adults.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Subjects and measurements: The subjects were 2411 healthy Japanese adults (males 625, females 1786, age 20–79 y) who attended the Fukuoka Health Promotion Center, Fukuoka, Japan for health check-up. Body composition was determined by DXA (QDR-2000, Hologic) for the whole body and three anatomical regions of arms, legs and trunk.

Results: The mean values of body mass index (BMI) and percentage fat mass (%FM) were 23.2±3.1 (s.d.) kg/m2 and 21.8±6.8% for males and 22.1±3.3 kg/m2 and 32.0±7.5% for females, respectively. For males, curvilinear relations with the peaks in their forties or fifties were seen for the variables associated adiposity, ie BMI, waist and hip circumference, waist–hip ratio, total or regional fat mass (FM), %FM and ratio of trunk FM to leg FM. For females, most of these variables increased linearly in older subjects. Lean mass (LM), bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) of the whole body and appendicular LM were relatively constant until the forties and then decreased in both sexes. The rates of decrease in the total or appendicular LM were larger for males than for females, whereas those in BMC or BMD were larger for females than for males.

Conclusions: This study presents the first detailed data on body composition in Japanese, which may be useful when comparing with populations of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and studying ill subjects.

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2001) 55, 462–470

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Tadashi Kawaida for his excellent technical assistance in performing DXA measurements. We also wish to thank Kaoru Egami, Yukie Urayama, Mami Yanagawa and other staff of the Fukuoka Health Promotion Center for their contribution to this project.

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Author notes

  1. H Ito: Guarantor: H Ito.

  2. H Ito, A Ohshima, N Ohto, M Ogasawara, M Tsuzuki, K Takao, C Hijii, H Tanaka and K Nishioka: Contributors: HI provided the original design of the study, analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. AO, NO, MO, MT, KT and CH contributed to the subject recruitment, execution of the medical examinations and collection of the data. HT was responsible for the study design and revisions of the draft manuscript. KN supervised the whole process.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fukuoka Health Promotion Foundation, Fukuoka, Japan

    H Ito, A Ohshima, N Ohto, M Tsuzuki, K Takao, C Hijii & K Nishioka

  2. Laboratory of Physical Science Inc., Fukuoka, Japan

    M Ogasawara

  3. Department of Sports and Health Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

    H Tanaka

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  1. H Ito
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Correspondence to H Ito.

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Ito, H., Ohshima, A., Ohto, N. et al. Relation between body composition and age in healthy Japanese subjects. Eur J Clin Nutr 55, 462–470 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601206

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