OBESITY AND RELATIVE SUBCUTANEOUS FAT DISTRIBUTION AMONG CANADIANS OFFIRST NATION AND EUROPEAN ANCESTRY

OBJECTIVE: To compare Canadians of Aboriginal (First Nation, FN) and E uropean ancestry (EA), with respect to obesity, subcutaneous fatness a nd relative subcutaneous fat distribution. DESIGN: Cross-sectional com parison. SUBJECTS: 118 First Nation and 472 European ancestry Canadian s from Northern Ontario, youth (5-19y) and adults (20-75y). MEASUREMEN TS: Stature, mass and skinfold thicknesses at the triceps, biceps, med ial calf, subscapular, suprailiac and abdominal sites. ANALYSIS: Preva lence of obesity was determined using the 85(th) percentile of body ma ss index (BMI) from NHANES II as the cut-off. Principal components (PC ) analyses were performed on the six skinfolds. The first component (P C1) represented a trunk-extremity skinfold contrast. Differences in me an component scores between FN and EA were assessed using independent samples t-tests. RESULTS: Prevalence of obesity among FN was high, ran ging from 29% in youth to 60% in adult females. FN demonstrated greate r subcutaneous adiposity and greater values for PC1, with the exceptio n of adult males, where the difference is in the expected direction, b ut is not significant. The direction of the differences indicates that the FN have a greater centralization of subcutaneous fat, CONCLUSIONS : FN Canadians generally have a greater prevalence of obesity, greater subcutaneous fatness and a more centralized distribution of body fat than those of European ancestry.