Body composition in Central Asia populations: Fat patterning variation in the Kazakhs of the Tien Shan mountains and the Uighurs of Semericia

Abstract

Eleven anthropometric variables related to fat patterning were analyzed in two populations of Central Asia, the Kazakhs of the Tien Shan mountains (2100 m) and the Uighurs of the Semericia plains. Subjects were healthy unrelated males, 122 Kazakhs and 79 Uighurs, 19–65 years. Comparisons were done with a preliminary analysis of variance and then by covariance analysis, taking into account the influence of age. The Uighurs, independently of age, show higher values than Kazakhs for all of the characteristics related to fat patterning, but principal components analysis suggests a similar somatic structure in the two samples. The presence of lower adiposity in the Kazakhs than in the Uighurs could be related to stress, probably associated with nutrition and lifestyle in a mountain environment. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 10:241–247, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Lung volume, chest size, and hematological variation in low-, medium-, and high-altitude Central Asian populations

“…This cross-sectional case control study was carried out during two Italian-Kazakh expeditions in the spring of 1993 and 1994 within the Central Asia High-Altitude People (CAHAP) Research Program. The CAHAP Program has three main areas of study: human adaptability to the high-altitude environment Pettener et al, 1997;Fiori et al, 2000); body composition (Battistini et al, 1995;Bedogni et al, 1997;Facchini et al, 1998) and genetic variability (Pettener et al, 1996;Comas et al, 1998;Perez-Lezaun et al, 1999).…”