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Age and sex effects on the relationship between body composition and hip geometric structure in males and females from East China

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Abstract

Summary

The study finds bone mineral density is the principal determinant of hip geometry and lean mass is a better determinant than fat mass in Chinese. Moreover, the impact of fat on skeleton differs with age, with a negative effect in young people but a more positive effect in elderly.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to examine whether the correlation between body composition including bone mineral density (BMD), lean mass (LM) and fat mass (FM), and hip geometric structure change with aging in males and females from East China.

Methods

It was a cross-section study. A total of 1168 healthy male and 1066 healthy females in Shanghai were divided into six groups based on their age and sex. All participants were evaluated by assessing the BMD of lumber spine and proximal hip, total LM, total FM, and geometric parameters of the hip such as the cross-sectional area (CSA), average cortical thickness (ACT), and the buckling ratio (BR) at the narrow neck (NN), the intertrochanter (IT), and the shaft (FS).

Results

Among the three body composition, the correlation between hip BMD and hip geometric structure was strongest. LM showed significantly positive correlations with CSA. FM showed negative or little positive correlation with hip geometry in the young group. However, the degree of the contribution of FM to hip geometric structure became substantially positive with aging. Limb LM produced the largest positive contribution to CSA and ACT at all three regions in young males. However, in older males the trunk LM produced the largest positive contribution to CSA and ACT.

Conclusions

Among all body composition parameters, hip BMD showed the largest correlation with hip geometric structure, with LM showing the second largest. The impact of FM and LM on hip geometry changed with aging and with different distributions of lean mass and fat mass.

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Abbreviations

BMD:

bone mineral density

LM:

lean mass

FM:

fat mass

CSA:

cross-sectional area

ACT:

average cortical thickness

BR:

buckling ratio

NN:

narrow neck

IT:

intertrochanter

FS:

shaft

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Acknowledgements

We like to thank a bunch to Yang Fei about her work on statistical analysis of data in this study, and we also like to thank all participants of the study and the involved laboratory staff.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC; No. 81471089), Shanghai science and technology commission (16411954600), and Shanghai Hospital Development Center (SHDC12016201).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Osteoporosis and Bone Disease, Research Section of Geriatric Metabolic Bone Disease, Shanghai Geriatric Institute, Fudan University Affiliated Huadong Hospital, 221 West Yan An Road, Shanghai, 200040, China

    Yanping Du, Hanmin Zhu, Songbai Zheng, Xiaoying Zhu, Xuemei Zhang, Sihong Xue, Huilin Li, Wei Hong, Wenjing Tang, Minmin Chen & Qun Cheng

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  1. Yanping Du
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  2. Hanmin Zhu
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  11. Qun Cheng
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Contributions

YPD, HMZ, and SBZ involved in the design of the study and interpretation of data.

XYZ, XMZ, and SHX participated in acquisition of data and analyzed the data.

WH performed the statistical analysis.

WJT, MMC, and HLL participated in the subjects recruitment and study implementation and coordination.

QC and YPD helped to draft the manuscript.

QC was in charge of the entire project.

All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qun Cheng.

Ethics declarations

Ethics and consent statement

All of the subjects provided written informed consent before participating in the study, and the program was approved by the Huadong Hospital Ethics Committee (Project NO.2014K004).

Conflicts of interest

None.

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Du, Y., Zhu, H., Zheng, S. et al. Age and sex effects on the relationship between body composition and hip geometric structure in males and females from East China. Arch Osteoporos 13, 79 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11657-018-0488-7

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