Age and sex distribution of body composition in middle-aged and elderly retired teachers in Urumqi

Objective To explore the age and sex distribution of body composition of middle-aged and elderly retired teacher in Urumqi. Methods From November 2016 to November 2017, a group of retired teachers aged 50 or more than 50 years in Urumqi were selected as subjects. Six communities were selected randomly in Urumqi city by cluster sampling with 1249 elderly retired teachers (360 men and 889 women) in our survey. The body composition analyzer was used to determine the limbs and trunk muscle mass, body water, protein, inorganic salt, body fat, body fat rate, waist hip ratio, basal metabolism, total energy consumption and impedance. Results There was significant difference (all P< 0.05) in the distribution of body composition of retired teachers in different age groups of same sex (except male impedance). In cases with age of 80 years or above, muscle mass, body composition index, basal metabolism, total energy consumption, body fat volume and body fat percentage were 46.55 kg, 50.2 kg, 13.1 kg, 20.2%, 1 035.0 kcal and 1 593.9 kcal in male, and 34.47 kg, 37.4 kg, 16.6 kg, 30.3%, 910.2 kcal and 1 401.8 kcal in female. Both were lowest in different age groups. There were statistically significant differences in the distribution of body composition between different genders in the same age group (all P< 0.05). Take the cases with age more than 80 years old as example, the muscle mass, body composition index, waist-to-hip ratio, basal metabolism and total energy consumption of male were 46.55 kg, 50.2 kg, 0.93, 10 35.0 kcal and 1 593.9 kcal, respectively, which were significantly higher than female (34.47 kg, 37.4 kg, 0.85, 910.2 kcal, 0.85 kcal), while the body fat weight, body fat rate and impedance of women were significantly higher than the men (16.6 kg vs 13.1 kg, 30.3% vs 20.2%, 462.0 Ω vs 395.3 Ω). Conclusion The body composition distribution of middle-aged and elderly retired teachers in Urumqi shows a decreasing trend with the increase of age. The body composition index (except body fat and impedance) is generally higher in male than that of female, indicating that body composition distribution has differences in age and gender, which should be treated differently and timely intervention should be taken to prevent the occurrence of disease.