PLOS ONE · 8 authors, 3 centres
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This prospective cohort study followed 1,704 Japanese community-dwelling adults for eight years to examine anthropometric predictors of mortality. The central result is that a smaller thigh-hip ratio was a significant, independent predictor of all-cause mortality in men, but not in women, where only body mass index was associated with mortality.
The study analyzed data from 1,704 participants in the 2014 Nomura Cohort Study over an eight-year follow-up (93.0% rate). Cox regression analysis was used to assess the association of anthropometric indices with all-cause mortality, adjusting for age, gender, BMI, smoking, drinking, exercise, and various health conditions. Of the 158 total deaths (92 men, 66 women), multivariable analysis revealed that a smaller thigh-hip ratio predicted all-cause mortality in men, while only baseline body mass index was associated with mortality in women. The study suggests thigh-hip ratio is a useful mortality predictor for community-dwelling Japanese men. Limitations include potential unmeasured confounding factors, reliance on a resident registry that may miss relocations, lack of longitudinal lifestyle data, and results from a specific rural aging population that may not be generalizable.
