Associations between fat accumulation and distribution and bone mineral status in men have not been comprehensively established, and available results are inconsistent. The aims of this study were as follows: (1) to evaluate relationships between anthropometric parameters of general obesity (body mass index, BMI) and fat distribution (waist/hip ratio, WHR) and bone mineral content (BMC), and (2) to compare BMC (a) between obese men (BMI >or= 27) and nonobese men and (b) between abdominally obese men (WHR >or= 0.95) and men without visceral adiposity, in a population-based sample of Polish men. The sample comprised a group of 272 men, aged 20-60, randomly selected from healthy and occupationally active inhabitants of Wroclaw, Lower Silesia, Poland. Trabecular, cortical and total BMC at the ultra-distal radius of the nondominant hand were assessed by pQCT using the Stratec 960 apparatus. BMI and WHR were used as parameters of general obesity and fat distribution, respectively. The relationships among the analysed variables were established using a multiple linear regression. The differences in BMC depending on BMI and WHR values were tested using an analysis of covariance (ancova). BMI was positively related only to trabecular BMC (r = 0.17; P = 0.03). Only trabecular BMC was higher in men with BMI >or= 27 compared to nonoverweight subjects (F = 5.38; P = 0.02). WHR was inversely related to trabecular (r = - 0.30; P < 0.001), cortical (r = - 0.30; P < 0.001) and total BMC (r = - 0.34; P < 0.001). All densitometric parameters were lower in males with WHR >or= 0.95 than in normal men (results of ancova: for trabecular BMC, F = 6.33, P = 0.01; for cortical BMC, F = 5.52, P = 0.02, and for total BMC, F = 7.73, P = 0.006). In the healthy Polish male population, BMI was of minor significance as a predictor of BMC at the ultra-distal radius, whereas visceral adiposity (assessed by WHR) was significantly linked to reduced bone mass in men.

Multivariate genetic models were fitted to data from 44 pairs of MZ and 42 pairs of DZ twin girls on weight, height, and skeletal maturation at the age of menarche, in order to obtain information on genetic relationships of those measures with the age of menarche. The relationships of all three physical measures with this age were largely genetically controlled, but a genetic system controlling skeletal maturity was identified as the only genetic determinant of menarcheal age, independent of those systems of the two remaining physical measures. Heritabilities of all individual traits considered in the study were uniformly high. Possible links of genetic information with hormonal functions determining menarche are discussed.

Mortality rates among adult men and women, inhabitants of the city of Wrocław, were studied within 5-year age classes between 20 and 64 years of age relative to two social variables: education and marital status of the deceased. Age- and sex-specific mortality rates reveal a systematic social gradient. They are highest among persons with primary or "basic vocational" school education, lower among those with secondary school education, and lowest among those with college education. This gradient consistently appears in each of the age classes of males and females, although it is more pronounced among males. In both sexes, married persons have lower rates of mortality than those who have never married or were divorced or widowed. Among females, marital status appears to have a stronger effect on age-specific rates of mortality than educational status; the reverse is the case among males. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The incidence of obesity, defined as the fraction of persons with BMIs exceeding 30·0, was examined in two birth cohorts of 40-50-year-old occupationally active inhabitants of the city of Wrocław, Poland. In both cohorts and both genders obesity increased monotonically with decreasing position on a three-level educational scale. During the 1986-1996 decade obesity increased dramatically among males with trade school education only; concomitant shifts were much smaller or absent in the college-educated groups. The contrast in obesity between the opposite ends of the educational scale has widened markedly in both genders; and the between-gender gap has declined somewhat.

Variation in the body mass index (BMI) among occupationally active inhabitants of one Polish urban center was studied by means of a three-factor ANOVA. The material is cross-sectional and comprises 32,750 men and women aged 22-60 years, examined in five successive surveys between 1983-1999. The factors considered in each sex were: 1) age category, 2) year of examination, and 3) social class. The increase of BMI with age is markedly greater among women than among men. No sustained intergeneration trend towards increased BMI was detectable in either sex. The BMI means rise regularly with decreasing position on the social scale in both sexes, but this effect is much more dramatic in women. The latter finding suggests that the condition of being situated low on the social scale is conducive to growth of fatness with age, markedly more so in women than in men. The absence of a secular trend in BMI means during the period considered contrasts with results reported for a number of other countries. This finding is intriguing, because Poland underwent abrupt and profound socio-economic transformation in the early 1990s.