Oral Presentation 29th Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society Annual Scientific Meeting 2019

Relationship between visceral adipose tissue and bone mineral density in middle to older age Australians (#36)

Kun (Kathy) Zhu 1 2 , Michael Hunter 3 4 , Alan James 2 5 , Ee Mun Lim 1 6 , Brian R Cooke 7 , John P Walsh 1 2
  1. Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia
  2. Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia
  3. Busselton Population Medical Research Institute, Busselton, WA, Australia
  4. School of Population and Global Health, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
  5. Department of Pulmonary Physiology and Sleep Medicine , Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands, WA, Australia
  6. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, PathWest Laboratory Medicine, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre, Nedlands, WA, Australia
  7. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, PathWest Laboratory Medicine, Fiona Stanley Hospital, Murdoch, WA, Australia

Aim: Increased body mass is associated with higher bone mineral density (BMD), but the role of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) on bone health is not clear. In the Busselton Healthy Ageing Study, we examined the association of VAT mass and BMD in 4887 participants (2652 females) aged 45-70 years.

Methods: VAT mass and BMD of whole body, total hip, femoral neck and lumber spine were measured using DXA (GE Lunar Prodigy) from 2010 to 2016. Participants were grouped into VAT mass quartiles using sex-specific cut-offs (males: <1000, 1000-1600, 1600-2200, >2200 g; females <400, 400-800, 800-1250, >1250 g), and comparison between the four quartiles were made by ANCOVA adjusting for confounding factors.

Results: The mean age was 58.0 ± 5.8 years. Males had slightly higher BMI (28.3 ± 3.7 vs 27.5 ± 4.9 kg/m2), but significantly higher VAT mass (1673 ± 869 vs 884 ± 602 g) compared with females. VAT mass positively correlated with age in both males and females (r=0.229 and 0.223, respectively, P<0.001). Accounting for age, height and body mass, males with VAT mass at the 1st and 2nd quartiles had significantly higher total body, hip and femoral neck BMD (3.7-6.1%, all P<0.05) compared with those had VAT mass at the 4th quartile; females with VAT mass at the 1st quartile had had significantly higher BMD at total body (3.8%) and femoral neck (3.0%) compared with those had VAT mass at the 4th quartile (both P<0.05). The results remained similar after further adjusted for alcohol consumption, physical activity level, smoking status, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and calcium supplement use.

Conclusion: We found that higher levels of VAT associated with reduced bone density in middle to older age Australians, suggesting that excess visceral fat might be deleterious to bone, especially in males.