Open AccessBody mass-to-waist ratio strongly correlates with skeletal muscle volume in children
Author(s) -
Masahito Ohta,
Taishi Midorikawa,
Yuki Hikihara,
Shizuo Sakamoto,
Yasuo Kawakami,
Tetsuo Fukunaga,
Hiroaki Kanehisa
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0177155
Subject(s) - waist , circumference , umbilicus (mollusc) , medicine , regression analysis , anthropometry , magnetic resonance imaging , body mass index , demography , zoology , anatomy , mathematics , biology , statistics , geometry , radiology , sociology
Purpose We hypothesized that body mass-to-waist ratio is strongly associated with the total-body skeletal muscle volume (SMV) in children. The purpose of the present study was to examine this hypothesis. Methods By using magnetic resonance imaging, total-body SMV (SMV MRI ) was determined in 70 boys and 53 girls aged 6 to 12 years. Waist was measured at each of the level of umbilicus (Wumb) and the minimum circumference (Wmin), and the ratio of body mass to each of the two measured values was calculated (BM/Wumb and BM/Wmin, respectively). A single regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between SMV MRI and either BM/Wumb or BM/Wmin. On the basis of the obtained regression equations, SMV MRI was estimated and referred to as SMV BM/Wumb or SMV BM/Wmin . Results In both boys and girls, SMV MRI was highly correlated to BM/Wumb (r = 0.937 for boys and r = 0.939 for girls, P < 0.0001) and BM/Wmin (r = 0.915 and 0.942, P < 0.0001). R 2 and the standard error of estimate for SMV BM/Wumb were 0.878 and 706.2 cm 3 , respectively, in boys and 0.882 and 825.3 cm 3 , respectively, in girls, and those for SMV BM/Wmin were 0.837 and 814.0 cm 3 , respectively, in boys and 0.888 and 804.1 cm 3 , respectively, in girls. In both boys and girls, there were no significant differences between SMV MRI and either SMV BM/Wumb or SMV BM/Wmin, without systematic errors in Band-Altman plots. There was no significant effect of model on the absolute values of the residuals in both boys and girls. Conclusion The current results indicate that body mass-to-waist ratio can be a convenient outcome measure for assessing the total-body skeletal muscle volume in children.