The Association of Body Fat and Leisure Time Physical Activity Called into Question for Asian Indians

Abstract

<p class="Pa7"><strong>Objective: </strong>Thrifty genotypes may predis­pose to type 2 diabetes and body fat (%BF) excess through a differentiated relationship between physical activity and body fat. We explored this hypothesis in Asian Indians, a population thought to be thrifty.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Methods: </strong>Three hundred and nine Guade­loupian adolescents responded to the modi­fiable activity questionnaire. Their body fat was assessed by bioimpedancemetry. We first studied the relationship between %BF and leisure time physical activity (LTPA). We then explored the associations of ethnic­ity with this relationship in a subgroup of 93 Asian Indians matched with 93 controls for age, sex, and LTPA class. The alpha risk retained was .05.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Results: </strong>The analyses showed that Asian In­dians had higher %BF even when matched with controls for age, sex and LTPA quartile, and the relationship between LTPA and %BF observed in controls was not evidenced in Asian Indians.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The higher %BF in Asian In­dians remained significant even when they were matched with controls for age, sex and LTPA quartile, and their LTPA was not associated ‒ or was at least less robustly as­sociated ‒ with %BF. These findings are con­sistent with the hypothesis of thriftiness in Asian Indians, with the weaker relationship of high LTPA and low %BF a possible path to thriftiness.</p><p class="Pa7"><em>Ethn Dis. </em>2016;26(4):485-492; doi:10.18865/ed.26.4.485</p>