Distribution of water turnover by sex and age as estimated by prediction equation in Japanese adolescents and adults: the 2016 National Health and Nutrition Survey, Japan

BACKGROUND: Although water is essential to the maintenance of health and life, standard values for human water requirements are yet to be determined. This study aimed to evaluate the distribution of water turnover (WT) according to sex and age, estimated using a prediction equation, in Japanese adolescents and adults. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data from the 2016 National Health and Nutrition Survey, Japan. Data were obtained from electronically available aggregated reports in the survey’s official website. Participants aged between 15 and 80 years (10,546 men, 12,355 women) were selected using stratified random sampling. WT was calculated considering lifestyle and environmental factors, and using an equation (coefficient of determination = 0.471) previously developed by the international doubly labelled water (DLW) database group. As data on physical activity levels (PAL) were not collected in the survey, we used two evaluation methods: (1) energy intake assessed by dietary records and (2) total energy expenditure measured by the DLW method reported in previous Japanese studies, divided by basal metabolic rate predicted using the equation. We evaluated the relationship between WT and age using a restricted cubic spline model. RESULTS: The average WT for the 15–19, 20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, and ≥ 70 years was 3291, 3151, 3213, 3243, 3205, 3104, and 2790 ml/day, respectively in men, and 2641, 2594, 2741, 2739, 2753, 2707, and 2482 ml/day, respectively in women. In the spline model, WT showed an inverse association with age in men older than 50 years, whereas women showed a reverse U-shaped relationship between WT and age (p for non-linearity < 0.001), although results differed with body weight adjustment. Similar results were found for both PAL evaluation methods, and the range of WT per body weight was 45–56 ml/day for both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: We determined the standard values of WT in Japanese population using a prediction equation and national large-scale survey data. These findings may be useful for setting water requirements for dietary guidelines in future. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12937-023-00896-z.