Race and gender differences in the relationships between anthropometrics and abdominal fat in youth

We examined the influence of race and gender on abdominal adipose tissue (AT) distribution for a given anthropometric measure including waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height (W/Ht) in youth.

Subjects included healthy 62 black and 98 white youth. A single transverse image of the abdomen (L4-L5) was obtained using computed tomography.

For a given BMI, there was a significant (P<0.05) main effect of race and sex on the relationship between BMI and WC, such that boys and whites had a higher WC than girls and blacks. There was a significant (P<0.05) main effect and interaction effect of gender on the relationship between WC and visceral AT, such that boys had a higher visceral AT than girls, and the difference was magnified with increasing WC. For a given WC, black boys and girls had higher abdominal subcutaneous AT (SAT) than white peers, wherein the magnitude of the difference is increased with increasing WC. For a given W/Ht, black boys had significantly (P<0.05) lower visceral AT than white boys, but with no difference in girls. Black boys and girls had higher SAT than white peers, wherein the magnitude of the difference is increased with increasing W/Ht.

Our findings demonstrate a significant race and gender differential in the abdominal AT distribution for a given BMI, WC, WHR, and W/Ht. Future studies should take these differences into consideration when developing race- and gender-specific anthropometric cut-offs for obesity and obesity-related health risks in youth.