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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1444162

Association between relative fat mass and female infertility among U.S. reproductive-aged women: a population-based study from NHANES 2013-2020

Provisionally accepted
Yiming Chen Yiming Chen Yuanyuan Li Yuanyuan Li Bo Zhang Bo Zhang Wei Xia Wei Xia Xingliang Feng Xingliang Feng *
  • The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China., Changzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Female infertility is a prevalent condition closely linked with obesity. Current evaluation metrics like body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) have limitations. Relative fat mass (RFM) is a newer, more accurate obesity metric, but its relationship with infertility lacks research.Methods: Data from 3489 female participants aged 18-45 years from the NHANES 2013-2020 cycles were extracted and analyzed. Infertility was assessed based on participants' pregnancy attempts and medical consultations. The primary exposure variables were BMI, WC, and RFM.Multivariable regression analyses were conducted to compare their associations with infertility, expressed as odds ratios (ORs). RFM was further categorized into quartiles for additional regression analysis. Subgroup analyses and restricted cubic splines (RCS) were employed for robustness and linearity assessments.Our results showed an infertility prevalence of 13.41%, with affected women being older and having higher BMI. The OR (1.039, 95% CI: 1.010, 1.068) for RFM in regression analysis of Model 3 was higher than for BMI (1.020, 95% CI: 1.002, 1.039) and WC (1.014, 95% CI:1.006, 1.022), indicating that each unit increase in RFM correlates with a higher risk of infertility. Similarly, quartile analysis of Model 3 indicated increased infertility risk with higher RFM quartiles (Q2:

    Keywords: Obesity, Female infertility, Relative fat mass, NHANES, Cross-sectional study

    Received: 05 Jun 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Li, Zhang, Xia and Feng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xingliang Feng, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China., Changzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.