Body Composition of Aboriginal Australian and Caucasian Women Compared
January 7, 2004 (St. George Hospital Sydney)

According to researcher in Australia, "Although Aboriginal Australians (AA) exhibit an android fat deposition profile and suffer from a high incidence of type 2 diabetes, a comprehensive body composition assessment of AA has not yet been reported. The body composition of 16 non-diabetic AA women and 16 healthy age- and weight-matched Caucasian women (C) showed no significant ethnic differences in height, total body bone mineral density, total and appendicular skeletal muscle mass, and %fat."
 

"The abdominal fat-to-lean soft tissue ratio correlated more highly with age in AA (r=0.79, p<0.001) than in C (r=0.59, p<0.05) and with % fat in AA (r=0.67, p<0.01) than in C (r=0.54, p<0.05)," reported Chand Raja at St. George Hospital in Sydney and collaborators in Australia. "However, analysis of variance showed that the difference between the two ethnic groups was not significant. Key findings are that dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry can accurately assess adiposity, and that hip girth should emerge as a valid predictor of central adiposity, in Aboriginal Australian women."

Raja and associates published their study in Acta Diabetologica (Body composition of Aboriginal Australian women: comparison with age-matched Caucasians. Acta Diabetol, 2003;40(Suppl. 1):S314-S316).
 

For additional information, contact Chand Raja, CERO, Cancer Cure Center, St. George Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
 

The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of Body Composition, Body Mass Index, Diagnostics, Minority Health, Endocrinology, and Women's Health. This article was prepared by Biotech Week editors from staff and other reports.

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