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The impact of maternal anthropometric characteristics, above all prepregnancy weight status and pregnancy weight gain, on newborn size was tested using 10,240 single births in the University Hospital of Vienna, Austria. Highly significant relations between maternal prepregnancy weight status and newborn size were observed. With higher maternal prepregnancy body mass index, higher birthweight, length, head circumference, acromial circumference and fronto occipitalis diameter occurred. Furthermore the incidence of low weight newborns (2500 g) was significantly higher in underweight women than in normal weight, overweight and obese women. Although the pregnancy weight gain was significantly higher in underweight women than in normal weight, this higher pregnancy weight gain was not able to compensate for the negative impact of poor weight status before pregnancy. These results indicate that even in a highly developed country such as Austria, where starvation is a nearly unknown problem and the medical and social system are well developed, a poor maternal weight status is a risk factor for growth retarded and low weight births.

This paper examines sex specific associations between soft tissue body composition (lean and fat mass) and bone mineral density among older adults.Two hundred and eighty-two subjects (152 females and 130 males) aged 60-92 years ((x))= 71.9 ± 7.9) were enrolled. Body composition of the whole body and bone density (BMD) of the whole body and the femoral neckwere measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Body mass index (BMI), relative appendicular skeletal muscle mass (RASM) and relative total muscle mass (RTSM) were calculated. Subjects were categorized based on sarcopenia, i.e. reduced appendicular skeletal muscle mass, osteopenia and osteoporosis. BMD of the femoral neck was used to categorize osteopenia and osteoporosis.Sex-specific correlation patterns between soft tissue body composition and bone density were observed. Lean body mass (RASM and RTSM) correlated significantly with total and femoral neck bone density in men, absolute and relative fat mass were significantly related to whole and femoral neck bone density among women only. Sarcopenic men suffered significantly more frequently from osteopenia and osteoporosis than their non-sarcopenic counterparts. Among females sarcopenia was not related to reduced bone density.The impact of soft tissue body composition on bone density is different among men and women at older ages. A significant relation between muscle mass and bone density is found among elderly males only.

Correlations between sex-hormone levels and body dimensions were investigated in a group of women from Vienna. Since sex-hormone concentrations in women are subject to dramatic changes with increasing age, both 124 fertile and 142 postmenopausal women were examined. Twenty-nine anthropometric traits were correlated with oestradiol, the gonadotrophins luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), the gestagens progesterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone and prolactin, and the androgens testosterone, androstenedione and DHEA-S, as well as with the transport protein, sex-hormone binding globulin. It was also found that oestradiol concentration was related to levels of gonadotrophins, prolactin, progesterone and androgens and was equally correlated with metric traits. Statistically significant correlations could be observed between all sex-hormone concentrations and the 29 anthropometric traits. The most striking result is the change in direction of correlations between metric traits and oestrogen, gonadotrophin, prolactin and gestagen levels between both proband groups, which is probably due to changes in sex-hormone concentrations in women after menopause. The direction of correlations with androgens remained the same. In post-menopausal women the great impact of fat tissue for sufficient synthesis of oestrogen is shown by a positive correlation between oestradiol and circumference measures.

At both extremes of reproductive phase, female cycles are characterized by a high rate of anovulation, and pregnancies at these phases of reproductive span are considered as risky for obstetric complications, poor pregnancy outcome and increased maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality.To analyse if this high rate of anovulation may be interpreted as an adaptation to poor pregnancy outcome. Therefore the association patterns between maternal age and newborn somatometric characteristics and the mode of delivery were tested.The associations between the age as well as somatic characteristics such as pre-pregnancy weight, stature, pelvic dimensions and pregnancy weight gain of 10 765 women aged between 12 and 49 years (mean = 25.3, SD = 5.7) and newborn body dimensions and the mode of delivery were analysed.With increasing maternal age, maternal and newborn body dimensions increased significantly. Although extremely young mothers were significantly shorter and lighter and exhibited the significantly lowest pre-pregnancy weight status and the narrowest pelvic dimensions, they showed the lowest rates of caesarean sections (13.1%) and, unexpectedly, not the highest rate of low weight newborns (2,500 g). In contrast, for mothers older than 35 years the highest rate of low weight newborns (3.7%) and the highest rate of macrosom newborns (4,000 g) were found. Furthermore, mothers older than 40 years experienced the significantly highest rate of caesarean section (31.3%).Special risks were found for mothers older than 35 years, so the lower rates of ovulatory cycles during this phase of life may be interpreted as an adaptation to increased risks for complications and poor pregnancy outcome.

An anthropometric assessment was conducted at 238 !Kung San hunter-gatherers aged between 18 and 65 years (mean = 30.8 years), 156 Kavango horticultural pastoralists aged between 18 and 61 years (mean = 29.2 years) and for 87 urbanized Kavango people aged between 18 and 61 years (mean = 29.3 years) living as wage earning employees in northern Namibia. Weight status was estimated by using body mass index categories according to the recommendations of the WHO. As is typical for human populations, men were taller and heavier than women within the same ethnic groups. An interethnic comparison showed that both !Kung San women and men were lighter than Kavango women and men. The mean BMI of !Kung San women was 19.1 and of !Kung San men 19.4 kg/m2. Kavango people exhibited higher average BMI values, 19.4 for women, 20.3 kg/m2 for men. With the exception of the male urban Kavango people a high percentage (more than 30%) of the subjects were thin and underweight, as shown by a BMI of < 18.5 kg/m2. This was especially true of the !Kung San of both sexes and the rural Kavango men. Nearly 25% of !Kung San women met the criterion of weight depletion (BMI < 17.0). The cultural transition from nomadic hunter gatherer subsistence to a more sedentary life style over the last 20 years can be interpreted as an environmental stress which affected male as well as female nutritional status. The hard economic situation of the rural Kavango people may also be a stress factor which negatively influenced their nutritional status, especially of the men. The significantly better nutritional status of the urban Kavango men may be the result of the opportunities for work as wage earners or as soldiers.

The aim of the present study was to describe and quantify the typical changes in fat patterning from premenopause to postmenopause. The absolute and relative fat and lean body mass were estimated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in 461 healthy non-obese females between the ages of 18 and 64 years (x = 43.2). Significant differences (p0.001) in absolute and relative fat mass, body weight and body mass index between pre-, peri- and postmenopausal females were observed. Postmenopausal women were significantly heavier (BMI, x = 26.8) than perimenopausal (BMI, x = 24.4) and younger and older premenopausal women (BMI, x = 22.8) and showed significantly higher fat percentages (fat% x = 38.1) in comparison to perimenopausal (x = 36.8) and premenopausal females (x = 31.4). Three indices, upper body composition index, lower body composition index and fat distribution index were calculated. Typical differences in fat distribution patterns between females of differential menopausal status were found. During the premenopausal phase a more gynoid type of fat distribution prevailed, during the postmenopausal phase a more android kind of fat distribution occurred predominantly. The fat distribution during the perimenopause can be interpreted as less gynoid than during the premenopause.

The intercorrelations between 18 anthropometric variables, describing amount and distribution of subcutaneous fat tissue, and 12 growth hormone (GH) levels which had been obtained at intervals of 2 hours over a period of 24 hours, were tested in 25 premenopausal and 23 postmenopausal women from Austria. The 12 GH levels were included in the analyses because the GH shows typical pulsatile secretion patterns with peak values about midnight. Initially, premenopausal and postmenopausal women showed significantly different secretion patterns of GH; furthermore it became evident that the GH constantly correlated positively, however insignificantly, with stature height, but significantly negatively with all those measures describing amount and distribution of subcutaneous fat tissue. Beyond that the present paper indicates that age and menopausal status have a marked influence on GH secretion patterns. It became evident that, independent of menopausal status, typical association patterns between frequency of GH pulses per 24 hours, as well as the amplitude of the individual bursts and the amount of subcutaneous fat tissue, occur.