Scaling of adult human bone and skeletal muscle mass to height in the US population
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Authors
Heymsfield, Steven B.
Hwaung, Phoenix
Ferreyro‐Bravo, Fernando
Heo, Moonseong
Thomas, Diana M.
Schuna, John M.
Issue Date
2019
Type
journal-article
Language
Keywords
Absorptiometry , Body Composition
Alternative Title
Abstract
Objectives: The scaling of structural components to body size is well studied in mammals, although comparable human observations in a large and diverse sample are lacking. The current study aimed to fill this gap by examining the scaling relationships between total body (TB) and regional bone and skeletal muscle (SM) mass with body size, as defined by stature, in a nationally representative sample of the US population.
Methods: Subjects were 17,126 non-Hispanic (NH) white, NH black, and Mexican American men and women, aged ≥18 years, evaluated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey who had TB and regional bone mineral (BMin) and lean soft tissue (LST) mass measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. BMin and appendicular LST served as surrogate bone and SM mass measures, respectively. The allometric model, BMin or LST = α(height)β , in a logarithmic form was used to generate scaling exponents.
Results: The findings were similar across all gender and race groups: body mass scaled to height with powers of ~2.0 (mean β ± SE, 1.94 ± 0.08-2.29 ± 0.09) while TB and appendicular BMin and appendicular LST scaled to height with consistently larger powers than those for body mass (eg, all P < .05 in NH white men and women); the largest BMin and LST scaling powers to height were observed in the lower extremities.
Conclusions: Bone and SM mass, notably those of the lower extremities, increase as proportions of body mass with greater adult height. Metabolic and biomechanical implications emerge from these observations, the first of their kind in a representative adult US population sample.
Description
Citation
Heymsfield SB, Hwaung P, Ferreyro-Bravo F, Heo M, Thomas DM, Schuna JM Jr. Scaling of adult human bone and skeletal muscle mass to height in the US population. Am J Hum Biol. 2019 Jul;31(4):e23252. doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23252. Epub 2019 May 14. PMID: 31087593; PMCID: PMC6634976.
Publisher
American Journal of Human Biology
License
Journal
Volume
Issue
PubMed ID
ISSN
1042-0533
1520-6300
1520-6300