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Prepubertal Asians have less limb skeletal muscle
Mi-Yeon Song1, Jaehee Kim, Mary Horlick
1Department of Medicine, Obesity Research Center, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, New York 10025, USA.
Journal of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985)
|May 17, 2002
Summary
Prepubertal Asian children have less appendicular skeletal muscle (ASM) mass compared to African-American and Caucasian children. Asian girls also exhibited less ASM than Asian boys.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Endocrinology
- Human Physiology
- Comparative Anatomy
Background:
- Skeletal muscle mass in prepubertal Asian children remains understudied.
- Understanding ethnic variations in muscle mass is crucial for growth and health assessments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate appendicular skeletal muscle (ASM) mass differences in prepubertal Asian children compared to African-Americans and Caucasians.
- To examine sex-based differences in ASM mass among prepubertal Asian children.
Main Methods:
- Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to estimate ASM mass.
- The study included 170 prepubertal girls and 166 prepubertal boys of Asian ethnicity.
- Statistical analyses adjusted for age, height, and body weight.
Main Results:
- Prepubertal Asian children had significantly lower ASM mass than African-American children (P < 0.001).
- Asian girls showed less ASM mass than Caucasian girls (P = 0.004), with a trend in boys (P = 0.07).
- Asian girls had significantly less ASM mass than Asian boys (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
- Skeletal muscle mass, as a proportion of body weight, is lower in prepubertal Asian children compared to African-American and Caucasian children.
- Sex differences in ASM mass are evident in prepubertal Asian children, with girls having less muscle mass than boys.