Normal reference values for body composition and physical performance measures are needed in order to determine cut-off values for suboptimal health such as obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases, and/or sarcopenia. Few studies have provided comparative normative reference ranges across different populations. We compare several body composition and physical performance measures between older Hong Kong Chinese and Canadians to derive and contrast their respective reference values.17451 older adults from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) and 4000 from the Hong Kong Mr. and Ms. Osteoporosis (Os) cohort aged 65 years and over were included to derive reference values for walking speed, grip strength, 5-times chair stand test (CST), percentage body fat (PBF), weight, body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), and Conicity Index (C-index), stratified by age and sex.Overall normal reference values for Hong Kong males were higher compared with Canadians, particularly in younger age groups. The observations were reversed for females. Not surprisingly, Canadians have higher body weight and body mass index compared with Hong Kong older adults. Older Canadian males also have a higher percentage body fat and waist-hip ratio, compared with Hong Kong Older males. When fat distribution was compared, Hong Kong Chinese females have higher conicity index- indicating greater central fat distribution compared with Canadian females.Normative reference values are best derived in the context of ethnicity and geographic regions, when used in relation to health assessments requiring physical performance measures and body composition.
Shi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.