Asian ethnicity is associated with a higher trunk/periphery fat ratio in women and adolescent girls.

OBJECTIVE

Ethnic differences in body fat mass and distribution may develop in childhood and contribute to the elevated obesity-related disease risk among Asians. We evaluated adiposity measures of adult women and their adolescent daughters of predominantly Japanese and Caucasian ethnicity using Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA). METHODS: We obtained DXA whole body scans for 101 mothers aged ≥30 years and 112 daughters aged 10-16 years who were classified as Asian, Part-Asian, Mixed-Other, and Caucasian. As a measure of central adiposity, we calculated the trunk/periphery fat ratio (TPFR). General linear models were applied to evaluate differences in adiposity measures by ethnic category. RESULTS: In mothers, TPFR was significantly higher (p(trend)=0.01) in Asians and Part-Asians (1.38±0.42 for and 1.32±0.51) than in Mixed-Others and Caucasians (1.18±0.27 and 1.09±0.21). Daughters showed a similar trend (p(trend) =0.001) with respective values of 1.09±0.18, 0.97±0.17, 0.99±0.16, and 0.87±0.11. Among mothers, gynoid fat mass and periphery fat mass were significantly lower in Asians than Caucasians, whereas none of the regional DXA adiposity measures in girls differed by ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm previous reports of greater central adiposity in women of Asian ancestry and indicate that ethnic differences in adiposity are already present in adolescence.