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Anthropometric correlates to changes in visceral adipose tissue over 7 years in women
S Lemieux1, D Prud'homme, A Tremblay
1Lipid Research Center, Laval University Medical Research Center, Québec, Canada.
Objective:
To investigate the association between either increases or decreases in visceral adipose tissue and changes in anthropometric indices in a group of 32 women studied over a 7-y period.
Subjects:
32 women aged 35.1 +/- 5.4 (SD) years at baseline.
Measurements:
Waist and hip circumferences, body fat mass (hydrostatic weighing) and viscera adipose tissue (computed tomography) were measured at baseline and at follow-up.
Results:
Waist girth, waist-to-hip ratio, sagittal diameter and visceral adipose tissue area were all significantly higher at follow-up than at baseline (p < 0.05). Changes in visceral adipose tissue area were strongly correlated to changes in waist girth, hip girth, sagittal diameter and body fat mass (0.80 < or = r < or = 0.91 p < 0.0001). However, the association between changes in waist-to-hip ratio and those in visceral adipose tissue area was of low magnitude (r = 0.35; p = 0.05). Partial correlation analyses showed that the association between changes in visceral adipose tissue area and changes in either waist girth (p < 0.01) or sagittal diameter (p < 0.0001) remained significant even after control for 7-y variation in total body fatness.
Conclusion:
Results of the present study suggest that changes in visceral adipose tissue accumulation that occur with age in women are better predicted by changes in waist girth or sagittal diameter than by changes in waist-to-hip ratio.