Abstract
BackgroundLarge waist circumference is linked to poor health. Investigations of the relationship between waist circumference, as an index of abdominal fat, and bone mineral density (BMD) have yielded inconsistent results. We investigated the association between abdominal obesity measured using waist circumference and BMD in a large-scale population-based study.MethodsWe enrolled 8981 Korean (3592 males and 5389 females) community-dwelling individuals aged ≥50 years from 2007 to 2010. BMD was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at lumbar spine and femoral neck skeletal sites. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between waist circumference quartiles and BMD after adjusting for age, height, weight, and regular exercise.ResultsThe adjustment for age, height, weight, and regular exercise revealed a negative linear association between quartile of waist circumference and BMD at the femoral neck and lumbar spine sites in males and females. Waist circumference was more strongly correlated with BMD in males than in females. Although the correlations were slightly attenuated following further adjustment for percent body fat, they remained statistically significant.ConclusionsOur results revealed that waist circumference is independently and inversely associated with BMD after adjusting for age, weight, height, regular exercise and percent body fat, suggesting that waist circumference is a potential predictor of osteoporosis in middle-aged and older Korean males and females.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-326) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
IntroductionInvestigations of the relationship between waist circumference, as an index of abdominal fat, and bone mineral density (BMD) have yielded inconsistent results
Large waist circumference is linked to poor health
Previous studies using BMI as an indicator of overall obesity found that higher BMI was correlated with high bone mass, reductions in body weight were associated with bone loss, and that the positive association between body weight or BMI and bone mineral density (BMD) was related to a weight-bearing effect on bone, leading to the conclusion that obesity was protective against fracture [15,16,17]
Summary
Investigations of the relationship between waist circumference, as an index of abdominal fat, and bone mineral density (BMD) have yielded inconsistent results. We investigated the association between abdominal obesity measured using waist circumference and BMD in a large-scale population-based study. Obesity has a considerable impact on health and increases the risk of several chronic diseases, including insulin resistance, Previous studies using BMI as an indicator of overall obesity found that higher BMI was correlated with high bone mass, reductions in body weight were associated with bone loss, and that the positive association between body weight or BMI and bone mineral density (BMD) was related to a weight-bearing effect on bone, leading to the conclusion that obesity was protective against fracture [15,16,17]. Central obesity was suggested to be more relevant to bone health than general obesity reflected by BMI; differences in the relationships between surrogate and direct measures of central adiposity and BMD were proposed to underlie the contradictory findings
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