Ethnic differences in abdominal visceral fat accumulation between Japanese, African-Americans, and Caucasians: a meta-analysis

A meta-analysis was performed in order to test the hypothesis that Japanese have a greater amount of abdominal visceral fat (AVF) relative to abdominal subcutaneous fat (ASF) than Caucasians. Data were derived from published studies that included mean values for AVF and ASF areas, measured using computed tomography, and age for native Japanese, African-Americans, and Caucasians of both genders. Mean values from each study were used as single data points. A significant difference in AVF was observed between Japanese and Caucasian populations after adjusting for ASF, age, and sex ( p<0.05). However, the difference in AVF between Japanese and Caucasian females was lower than that between African-American and Caucasian females.