Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-27-2021
Abstract
Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is a non-invasive imaging modality that can estimate whole-body and regional composition in terms of fat, lean, and bone mass. We examined the ability of DEXA body composition measures (whole-body, trunk, and limb fat mass and fat-free mass) to predict mortality in conjunction with basic body measures (anthropometrics), expressed using body mass index (BMI) and a body shape index (ABSI). We used data from the 1999–2006 United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), with mortality follow-up to 2015. We found that all DEXA-measured masses were highly correlated with each other and with ABSI and that adjustment for BMI and ABSI reduced these dependencies. Whole-body composition did not substantially improve mortality prediction compared to basic anthropometrics alone, but regional composition did, with high trunk fat-free mass and low limb fat-free mass both associated with elevated mortality risk. These findings illustrate how DEXA body composition could guide health assessment in conjunction with the more widely employed simple anthropometrics.
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Comments
This work was originally published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18157927.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).