Body Composition, Hormones, and Health Risk Factors in Middle-Aged Hispanic, African-American and Caucasian Women.
The specific aims of this project are: 1) Determine if the obesity-disease risk relationship is similar among the racial ethnic groups. This is important because this relationshipshould guide the development of healthy weight guidelines. Analyses will include determination of body fat ranges related to dyslipidemia, hypertension, and elevated glucose and insulinconcentrations in each group. 2) Determine if the obesity-hormone relationship is similar among the racial ethnic groups. This is important because of the critical role that hormones play in metabolism and disease processes. These inter-relationships are critical indeveloping our understanding of the etiology of diseases. 3) Determine if fat distribution pattern impacts the obesity-risk factor-hormonal relationships. The role of centrally located fat in disease risk has been described previously, but some investigators indicate that this risk may be mediated to some degree by race/ethnicity. 4) Determine if various field tests of body composition (BMI, skinfold equations, etc.) accurately estimate body fatness in middle-aged women from these racial ethnic groups. This is an important task because the majority of body composition methods were developed and validated on Caucasians. The efficacy of these methods in African-American and Hispanic women is not well-understood. The subject sample will be Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian women between the ages of 35 and 50 years. Gender, race, and age will be used as inclusionary criteria because of the goal to determine if race impacts the relationship among body composition and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Level of acculturation, ethnicity, education and socioeconomic status, physical activity, and dietary habits will be assessed by questionnaires available in Spanish and English. During a single two-hour testing session, standard descriptive measurements of height and weight will be recorded for each participant and body composition will be assessed by whole body plethysmography, bioelectrical impedance analysis, skinfold thickness measurements, body circumferences, and dual-energy x-ray absorbtiometry. Additionally, a 30-mL blood sample will be collected to determine the concentrations of glucose, insulin, growth hormone, leptin, SHBG, DHEA, and blood lipids. Statistical analysis will include analysis of co-variance to examine the racial/ethnic impact of body fat on health risk variables among the groups. Demographic variables, physical activity, and diet will be used as covariates. Multivariate regression will examine the inter-relationships of hormones, body composition, disease risk, and race. Interpretation of results will focus on the relationship between body composition, hormones, and risk factors in Hispanic, African-American and Caucasian women associated with low risk for CVD and type 2 diabetes.
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