Weight, body composition and fat distribution of Czech women in relation with reproductive phase: a cross-sectional study.

Abstract: A sample of 213 healthy Czech women was classified into four groupsaccording to their reproductive phase: fully reproductive, premenopausal,menopausal and postmenopausal women. Changes in body weight, bodycomposition and fat distribution were studied in those four groups using theclassical anthropometric method. Body weight rises till the menopause with nofurther increase. A decrease in relative contribution of muscle and bone mass wasobserved. The progressive increase in fat mass with age was clearly demonstrated,both the fat mass weight (r=0.38, p<0.001) and its percentage contribution(Matiegka r=0.40, p<0.001, Pařizkova r=0.42, p<0.001). There is a strongercorrelation of central fat indices as WHR (r=0.57, p<0.001), abdominal (r=0.56,p<0.001) and waist circumference (r=0.50, p<0.001) than for hip circumference(r=0.27, p<0.001) to the age. WHR and waist increase most when fullyreproductive and premenopausal women were compared (p<0.001); less whenpremenopausal to menopausal women are compared (NS) and the least whenmenopausal to postmenopausal women were compared (NS). The mean values of14 skinfolds thickness are shown, the skinfold at the abdomen shows the strongestcorrelation to the age (r=0.49, p<0.001). The results are consistent with thehypothesis of progressive fat centralisation.