Comparison of metabolic risk factors, physical performances, and prevalence of low back pain among categories determined by visceral adipose tissue and trunk skeletal muscle mass in middle-aged men

The present study compared metabolic risk factors, physical performances, and musculoskeletal impairment among categories determined by visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and trunk skeletal muscle (SM) mass in middle-aged Japanese men. In total, 1026 healthy Japanese males aged between 35 and 59 years were categorized into 4 groups according to the amount of VAT and SM in the trunk measured using low-dose computed tomography (LowVAT-HighSM, LowVAT-LowSM, HighVAT-HighSM, and HighVAT-LowSM). Height, body mass waist circumference, body fat, intramuscular adipose tissue (IntraMAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue, biochemical blood profiles (triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase and γ-glutamyl trans peptidase), physical performances (trunk flexibility, the chair-stand test, two-step length and hand-grip strength), the prevalence of low back pain, and lifestyle habits for exercise, alcohol intake and smoking, were compared among the groups. The results showed that LowVAT-HighSM had significantly superior biochemical blood profiles and physical performances to the other groups. HighVAT-LowSM had significantly higher %IntraMAT and the prevalence of low back pain. The two-step length, which is an index of walking ability, significantly differed according to the four subject categories. These results indicate that metabolic risk factors, physical performances, and prevalence of low back pain in middle-aged Japanese men may differ among four categories determined by VAT and trunk SM. •Interaction of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and trunk skeletal muscle (SM) reflected metabolic risk factors and physical performances.•Less VAT and more SM led to less metabolic risk factors and high physical performances.•More VAT and less SM had greater accumulation of intramuscular fat, higher prevalence of low back pain and lower walking ability.•More VAT and more SM had high prevalence of metabolic syndrome.•Subjects with less VAT and less SM had similar accumulation of intramuscular fat to more VAT and more SM subjects.