Scaling of body composition to height: relevance to height-normalized indexes

Body weight scales to height with a power of ≈2, thus forming the basis of body mass index (weight/height(2)). The corresponding scaling of body composition to height has not been established in a representative sample of US adults.

The aim of the study was to examine the scaling of weight, fat, fat-free mass, and bone mineral content to height.

Adult non-Hispanic white (NHW), non-Hispanic black (NHB), and Mexican American National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) participants were included in allometric analyses if they had complete age, weight, height, and body-composition data as measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Powers of height in allometric regression models were developed for each measure and adjusted for age.

The analyses included 13,183 subjects (6699 NHW, 3015 NHB, and 3469 Mexican American). The scaling of weight to height across sex-race groups provided powers (mean ± SE) ranging from 1.85 ± 0.12 in Mexican American women to 2.48 ± 0.17 in Mexican American men. Powers of height for body composition similarly ranged widely and were often outside the 95% CI for a power of 2. Of the 3 body-composition measures, the mean age-adjusted powers of height rounded to 2 as the nearest integer in 16 of 18 sex-race groups.

Adult weight and body composition scale to height with variable age-adjusted powers that are sometimes outside the 95% CI for a power of 2 but frequently round to 2 as the nearest integer. These observations have implications for developing height-adjusted body-composition indexes.