Association of Indices of Adiposity with Lipoprotein Sub-fractions in the general Population of Amritsar City

Abstract

Elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in circulation may get deposited in coronary arteries and result in atherosclerotic plaques at an early age and act as risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. More recent and detailed anthropometric indices in addition to traditional indices were assessed in this study along with lipid profile and lipoprotein indices in urban population (n = 100) of Amritsar, Punjab. n = 48 subjects comprised the case group and n = 52 subjects the control group. Study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Guru Nanak Dev University and individual voluntary written informed consent was provided by the study group. 46% of cases were obese and lipids and lipoprotein indices were significantly higher in obese group while low density lipoprotein cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol/high density lipoprotein cholesterol also in overweight category. Factor analysis extracted the 7 components out of 23 variables with a cummulative variance of 81.45%. Females had higher central obesity, waist hip ratio, waist height ratio and body adiposity index. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed a positive significant association of age (r = 0.363, p = 0.027), socio-economic status (r = 0.328, p = 0.023), waist hip ratio (r = 0.298, p = 0.042), waist height ratio (r = 0.864, p = 0 000) and body mass index (r = 0.794, p = 0.000) with low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and of gender with atherogenic index (r = 0.363, p = 0.011). Also, a significant correlation of total body fat mass with atherogenic index (r = 0.286, p = 0.048) and and body roundness index with low density lipoprotein (r = 0.345, p = 0.016) was observed. Multivariate regression analysis revealed age (B = 0.318, t = 2.380, p = 0.022) and gender (B = 0.370, t = 2.687, p = 0.010) to be significant predictors of body roundness index as well as age (B = 0.139, t = 2.307, p = 0.027) of low density lipoprotein cholesterol. The highest prediction accuracy was showed by waist circumference (AUC = 0.597) and the least by a body shape index (AUC = 0.458) as revealed by Receiver Operating Characteristics analysis. A positive association of low density lipoproteins with central and general obesity, signifies that lipid metabolism gets affected by adiposity and may further affect the lipoprotein indices which are reported to be associated with atherosclerosis and coronary heart diseases.