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Article Archive: Body Size

Nutritional status and spousal empowerment among native Amazonians
Godoy RA, Leonard WR, McDade T, Patel A, Reyes-García V, Seyfried CF Jr, Tanner S, Vadez V
Soc Sci Med 63(6):1517-30
1 September 2006
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Researchers and development organizations have shown interest in individual empowerment because it presumably improves well-being. Estimates of empowerment's effects on well-being contain biases from the potential endogeneity of empowerment. Using data from a sexually egalitarian and highly autarkic society of foragers and horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane', we overcome the problems that this poses by: (1) matching spouses' responses to the same questions about who makes decisions or who breaks ties in 10 domains to improve accuracy in measures of empowerment; and (2) using parental attributes of spouses as instrumental variables for spousal empowerment. Outcomes include two anthropometric indices of short-run nutritional status: body-mass index and age and sex-standardized z scores of mid-arm muscle area. The amount of empowerment of household heads did not affect their nutritional status or other indicators of their well-being, such as income, wealth, expenditures, happiness, social capital, or self-perceived health. It also did not affect the nutritional status of their offspring. Nor did it affect the difference in income, wealth, or monetary expenditures between spouses. The insubstantial effects persisted with other definitions of empowerment or types of regressions. We end with a discussion of why empowerment, despite its popularity in development discourse, has such tenuous links with objective indicators of well-being, and the implication of this finding for future studies of empowerment's effects.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Adult, Asian Continental Ancestry Group/statistics & numerical data, Basal Metabolism, Body Composition, Body Size, Calorimetry, Deuterium Oxide/diagnostic use, Energy Metabolism, Female, Humans, Indirect, Life Style, Male, Middle Aged, Motor Activity, Physical Exertion, Sex Factors, Siberia
The influence of basal metabolic rate on blood pressure among indigenous Siberians
Leonard WR, Mosher MJ, Snodgrass JJ, Sorensen MV, Tarskaia LA
Am J Phys Anthropol 137(2):145-55
1 October 2008
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Hypertension is an important global health issue and is currently increasing at a rapid pace in most industrializing nations. Although a number of risk factors have been linked with the development of hypertension, including obesity, high dietary sodium, and chronic psychosocial stress, these factors cannot fully explain the variation in blood pressure and hypertension rates that occurs within and between populations. The present study uses data collected on adults from three indigenous Siberian populations (Evenki, Buryat, and Yakut [Sakha]) to test the hypothesis of Luke et al. (Hypertension 43 (2004) 555-560) that basal metabolic rate (BMR) and blood pressure are positively associated independent of body size. When adjusted for body size and composition, as well as potentially confounding variables such as age, smoking status, ethnicity, and degree of urbanization, BMR was positively correlated with systolic blood pressure (SBP; P < 0.01) and pulse pressure (PP; P < 0.01); BMR showed a trend with diastolic blood pressure (DBP; P = 0.08). Thus, higher BMR is associated with higher SBP and PP; this is opposite the well-documented inverse relationship between physical activity and blood pressure. If the influence of BMR on blood pressure is confirmed, the systematically elevated BMRs of indigenous Siberians may help explain the relatively high blood pressures and hypertension rates documented among native Siberians in the post-Soviet period. These findings underscore the importance of considering the influence of biological adaptation to regional environmental conditions in structuring health changes associated with economic development and lifestyle change.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Basal Metabolism, Blood Pressure, Body Composition, Body Size, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Hypertension/epidemiology, Hypertension/etiology, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Siberia
Total energy expenditure in the Yakut (Sakha) of Siberia as measured by the doubly labeled water method
Leonard WR, Schoeller DA, Snodgrass JJ, Tarskaia LA
Am J Clin Nutr 84(4):798-806
1 October 2006
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BACKGROUND: Populations in transition to a Western lifestyle display increased incidences of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases; the mechanisms responsible for these changes, however, remain incompletely understood. Although reduced physical activity has been implicated, few studies have accurately quantified energy expenditure in subsistence populations.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to examine the relation of total energy expenditure (TEE) and activity [physical activity level (PAL), activity energy expenditure (AEE), and weight-adjusted AEE (AEE/kg)] with body composition and lifestyle in the Yakut (Sakha), an indigenous high-latitude Siberian group.

DESIGN: We measured TEE using doubly labeled water and resting metabolic rate using indirect calorimetry in 28 young adults (14 women and 14 men) from Berdygestiakh, Russia.

RESULTS: The men had higher TEE (12,983 compared with 9620 kJ/d; P < 0.01), AEE (5248 compared with 3203 kJ/d; P < 0.05), AEE/kg (72.7 compared with 48.8 kJ . kg(-1) . d(-1); P < 0.05), and PAL (1.7 compared with 1.5; P = 0.09) than did the women, although this may reflect, in part, body size and composition differences. Overweight men and women had modestly higher TEEs than did lean participants; when adjusted for body size, activity levels were not significantly different between the groups. Persons with more traditional lifestyles had higher TEEs and PALs than did persons with more modernized lifestyles; this difference correlated with differences in participation in subsistence activities.

CONCLUSIONS: Activity levels in the Yakut were lower than those in other subsistence groups, especially the women, and were not significantly different from those in persons in industrialized nations. Persons who participated in more subsistence activities and consumed fewer market foods had significantly higher activity levels.

Academic Articles by NU Faculty
Adult, Asian Continental Ancestry Group/statistics & numerical data, Basal Metabolism, Body Composition, Body Size, Calorimetry, Deuterium Oxide/diagnostic use, Energy Metabolism, Female, Humans, Indirect, Life Style, Male, Middle Aged, Motor Activity, Physical Exertion, Sex Factors, Siberia

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