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Estimation of deep-abdominal-adipose-tissue (DAAT) accumulation from simple anthropometric measurements in Indian men and women.

Brundavani V, Murthy SR, Kurpad AV

Department of Food sciences and Nutrition, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India. drbrundavani@hotmail.com

OBJECTIVE: To develop gender-specific predictive equations to measure the amount of deep-abdominal-adipose-tissue (DAAT) accumulation from simple anthropometric measurements. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS: A total of 120 healthy men and women (40-79 years). MEASUREMENTS: Body weights, circumferences, skinfolds, computed-Tomography (CT)-derived sagittal-diameters and the DAAT areas. RESULTS: High significant correlations are seen between the indices of waist-circumferences, sagittal diameters and body weights to DAAT areas in both the sexes. Stepwise multiple regression analysis with all anthropometric measures gave 84% (SEE 38.7 cm(2)) of the variance in men and 72% (SEE 29 cm(2)) in women. Body weights, waist-circumferences and sagittal-diameters had more predictive power in men, and in women, the arm-circumferences replaced the sagittal diameters. Five models with categorical measures of circumferences, skinfolds, and sagittal diameters explained 74.8-82% of the variance in men and 62-70% in women. The simplest equation with least measurement indices, that is, body-weight, waist-circumference and body mass index explained 74% (SEE 27.7 cm(2)) of the variance in men: DAAT (cm(2))= -382.9+(1.09 x weight-(kg))+(6.04 x waist-(cm))+(-2.29 x BMI). For women, body-weight and waist-circumference explained 63% (SEE 31.79 cm(2)) of the variance: DAAT (cm(2))= -278+(-0.86 x weight-(kg))+(5.19 x waist-(cm)). CONCLUSION: Body weight emerged as the outstanding index to measure the DAAT areas. Following anthropometric measures are the waist circumferences, sagittal diameters and BMI. Although the ability to estimate the amount of DAAT from anthropometry is limited, practical predictive models have been developed.

Published 2 May 2006 in Eur J Clin Nutr, 60(5): 658-66.
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