An interdisciplinary approach to understanding the biological pathways through which body composition impacts mobility: An analysis using longitudinal data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Body composition markedly changes with age including muscle loss and fat accumulation. Common measures of body fat such as the body mass index (BMI) fail to capture age-related changes and have limited our understanding of the role of body composition in maintaining mobility in older adults. Data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), will be evaluated to determine if alternative measures of body composition (i.e. visceral adipose tissues and subcutaneous adipose tissue) better identify older adults at increased risk of poor health due to excess fat.