Fig. 2.

Kaplan Meier survival estimates and forest plots for volumetric whole-body composition measures in the UKBB. (a) Overall survival in the UKBB for volumetric body composition according to 10th percentile (blue, <10%), mid 80th percentile (red, 10%–90%), and upper 10th percentile (green, >90%) of V_SAT, V_VAT, V_SM, V_SMFF, and V_IMAT. Cutoffs were derived from the NAKO cohort to avoid overfitting. Kaplan Meier survival estimates show substantial differences between V_SM, V_SMFF, and V_IMAT categories. (b) Forest plots show hazard ratios per 1-unit change with 95% confidence intervals of Cox proportional hazards regression analysis with endpoint all-cause mortality in the UKBB. Models were adjusted for age, sex, and BMI (upper row), and additional adjustment for traditional risk factors (lower row) for each body composition measure. V_SM, V_SMFF, and V_IMAT showed robust associations with all-cause mortality beyond baseline demographics and traditional risk factors. Outcome data was only available in the UKBB (median follow-up 4.8 years). Full models were adjusted for age, sex, BMI, race, alcohol consumption, smoking status, hypertension, diabetes, history of stroke, history of myocardial infarction, history of cancer, and blood serum markers (TC, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, glucose, and HbA1c). IMAT, intramuscular adipose tissue. L, lumbar vertebra. MACE, major adverse cardiovascular event. NAKO, German National Cohort. SAT, subcutaneous adipose tissue. SM, skeletal muscle. SMFF, skeletal muscle fat fraction. UKBB, UK biobank. VAT, visceral adipose tissue.