Introduction: Usually, the diagnosis of obesity is only based on body mass index (BMI), which may lead to a non-reliable body composition analysis.
Objective: To analyze the body characteristics of morbidly obese (class III) women referred to bariatric surgery using the compartment model of body composition analysis.
Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study conducted in 2017 in 14 morbidly obese women aged between 25 and 51 years who were undergoing clinical and physical therapy assessment prior to undergoing bariatric surgery at a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Body composition analysis was performed using an octopolar bioimpedance scale. The Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlation between variables, with a significance level of p<0.5.
Results: A high mean percentage of fat body was observed (51.2%), mainly in the trunk. BMI was correlated with total fat in kilograms (r=0.63), and muscle mass (r=0.60); besides, a moderate correlation with the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) was found (r=0.55). WHR showed a correlation with TBF% (r=0.60) and a moderate correlation with total fat in kilograms (r=0.57). In addition, the sarcopenia index was correlated with muscle mass (r=0.79) and total body water (r=0.78). All these correlations were statistically significant (p<0.05). There were no sarcopenia cases.
Conclusion: A higher concentration of fat in the trunk and the upper limbs was observed in the study population, however none of the participants had sarcopenia. On the other hand, BMI showed a greater correlation with both total fat (kg) and TBF% than with WHR. Such findings suggest that assessing these patients based only on BMI or WHR may hinder the development individualized treatment strategies.
P7‐29: Muscle mass evaluation using body composition analysis for COPD patients