Relationship between body composition and anthropometric measures for cardiovascular disease risk assessment in persons with spinal cord injury

Abstract Study design: A descriptive, cross-sectional study. Background: The longevity of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) has improved over the past decades. Consequently, many age-related disorders occur prematurely and at a higher prevalence in the SCI population than in the general population, such as cardiovascular disease. Setting: University Hospital in Umeå, Sweden Objective: To examine the relationship between abdominal fat mass and total body fat mass measured with Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) with anthropometrics measures in a heterogeneous group of SCI in northern Sweden. Also, to examine the relationship between risk markers for cardiovascular disease (CVD) with abdominal fat mass measured with DXA. Method: The study was conducted with 78 patients with SCI, at different injury and functional level. Data from anthropometric and DXA measurements and a blood lipid panel were analyzed. Results: There is a positive correlation, ranging from 0.54 to 0.66, between DXA measurements and anthropometric measures. Regarding dyslipidemia as a risk marker, there was statistically higher values of total body fat mass and abdominal fat mass in the group of participants with the condition (36.0–42.2%) compared with others without the risk marker (26.3–30.6%). Conclusion: In the light of the fact that there is a high CVD-risk in the SCI-population there is a need for cheap and easy to use measurement as predictors for this risk. Based on these results, although DXA still provides more reliable data and information, this study provides support for using the anthropometric measures BMI (SCI-specific cut-points), WC and SAH in clinical settings as a proxy for increased abdominal and total body fat.