Somatic status and body composition of young men of the Altai Republic living in urban and rural areas

Abstract

Introduction. One of the traditional tasks of biological anthropology is the study of the morphological status of the indigenous populations. Our aim was to study the somatic status and bioimpedance body composition of young men of Altai and Russian ethnicities aged 17–24 years living in urban and rural areas of the Altai Republic.

Materials and methods. In 2021–2023, 167 men aged 17 to 24 years (87 Altai-Kizhi and 80 Russians) living in urban and rural areas were examined. The examination program included anthropometry, the Heath-Carter somatotyping, and BIA. Ethnic differences and urban-rural differences were assessed using parametric and non-parametric methods.

Results. Ethnically Russian men were, in general, somewhat larger than the Altai men. Significant ethnic differences were found for Ht (174.7 and 172.3 cm), Wt (72.2 and 66.8 kg), BMI (23.6 and 22.5 kg/m²), WC (79.6 and 76.9 cm) and HC (95.5 and 92.4 cm). Significant ethnic differences were also observed for the mesomorphy rating (5.44 and 4.96), the resistance R50 (521.4 and 541.3 Ohms), phase angle (7.35 and 7.08 degrees), FFM (55.1 and 50.9 kg) and FFMi (18.0 and 17.1 kg/m²). The distributions of the somatotype in the subgroups of Altai and Russian men were close, with a predominance of the mesomorphic type. In both ethnic subgroups, there was a tendency to increased body size and body composition parameters’ values in urban residents, with the statistically significant differences in Ht, Wt, BMI, WC, HC and FFM among the Altaians. The urban Russian residents, as compared to urban Altaians, had significantly higher mesomorphy rating and FFM. The rural Russian residents, as compared to rural Altaians (taking into account age differences between the subgroups) had significantly higher age-related z-scores of Ht, Wt, HC, phase angle, FFM and FFMi.

Conclusions. The results of our study suggest that permanent residence in urban or rural areas, along with ethnic differences, is a significant factor associated with the somatic status of young Altai-Kizhi and ethnically Russian men belonging to the modern indigenous population of the Altai Republic. In the subgroup of young men who are inherently living in the city, there was a tendency to smooth out ethnic differences in somatic status in comparison with residents of rural areas. © 2025. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license

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