Abstract

We studied the body composition of 107 healthy premenopausal women with stable weight, 56 active (age, mean ± SD: 22.89±4.39 yr; range 18-38) and 51 sedentary (age, mean ± SD: 24.55±4.38 yr; range 18-38) women, considering their familiarity to non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). The body composition difference between the two groups, in toto was expected (FFM/FM Ratio; active w. mean ± SD: 2.62±0.76 vs sedentary w. mean ± SD: 2.17±0.82; p<0.005), because a regular physical activity improves the body composition increasing the FFM/FM ratio. The familiarity degree to the illness influences the body composition in sedentary women: in fact, the women with a first degree familiarity to NIDDM showed higher FM values, in kg and percentage (p<0.05, respectively), than the women with second degree and without familiarity to the illness. Instead, there aren't significant differences in the body composition between the active women subgroups, relatively to the familiarity degree to NIDDM. From the comparison of the subgroups of active and sedentary women with the same familiarity degree to NIDDM, the active women with first degree familiarity to NIDDM have shown a better body composition than the sedentary ones. The data confirm that a regular physical activity prevents the unfavourable modifications of body composition in young healthy women, particularly in ones with a first degree familiarity to NIDDM. Verf.-Referat