Age and sex variation in measures of body composition among the elderly Bengalee Hindus of Calcutta, India.

In the present cross-sectional study we examined 332 (171 men and 161 women) elderly (60 years and above) urban Bengalee Hindu resident in south Calcutta, India. Individuals were selected by random sampling procedure using local voter's registration list. Skin folds measures were used to compute body composition measures among them. There existed significant sex differences in various anthropometric body composition measures. Age had significant (p < 0.001) negative association with all anthropometric body composition measures namely percentage of body fat (PBF), fat mass (FM), arm muscle circumference (AMC), arm muscle area (AMA) and arm fat area (AFA) in both sexes. Fat free mass (FFM) in contrast had negative but not significant age impact. Regression analyses demonstrated that age had explained substantial amount of variance of PBF (men = 32%; women = 18.2%), FM (men = 18.2%; women = 12.8%), AMC (men = 23.4%; women = 19.2%), AMA (men = 22.2%; women = 10.2%) and AFA (men = 34%; women = 31%) in both sexes. Two-way ANOVA revealed age-sex interaction only had significant effect on FFM. The present investigation vindicated that there is a significant inverse age trends in anthropometric body composition measures among the Bengalee Hindus. Moreover, there existed sexual dimorphism in the effect of age on various anthropometric body composition measures.