TY - JOUR
T1 - Scaling of adult human bone and skeletal muscle mass to height in the US population
AU - Heymsfield, Steven B.
AU - Hwaung, Phoenix
AU - Ferreyro-Bravo, Fernando
AU - Heo, Moonseong
AU - Thomas, Diana M.
AU - Schuna, John M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2019/7/1
Y1 - 2019/7/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1002/ajhb.23252
DO - 10.1002/ajhb.23252
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065778690
SN - 1042-0533
VL - 31
JO - American Journal of Human Biology
JF - American Journal of Human Biology
IS - 4
M1 - e23252
ER -