Reduction of Visceral Fat Correlates with the Decrease in the Number of Obesity-Related Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Japanese with Abdominal Obesity (VACATION-J Study)

Abstract

Visceral fat accumulation is associated with obesity-related cardiovascular risk factor accumulation and atherosclerosis. The present study investigated whether one-year reduction of the visceral fat area (VFA) correlates with a decrease in the number of such factors in Japanese with or without visceral fat accumulation. The study subjects comprised 5,347 Japanese, who underwent health check-ups in 2007 and 2008, including measurements of VFA and subcutaneous fat area (SFA) by computed tomography at 9 centers in Japan. Subjects with one or more such factor(s) were categorized into tertiles based on the one-year change in VFA. We investigated the multivariate age, sex, and one-year change in SFA-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for reductions in the number of risk factors in each of the three categories based on the one-year change in VFA, in subjects with one or more such factors (n= 3,648). In the entire group (n=3,648), the OR and 95%CI for reductions in the number of risk factors in the first tertile were 0.804 (0.673-0.962, p=0.0172), compared with the second tertile set at 1.0. Subjects with VFA <100cm(2) showed no reduction in the number of risk factors. In subjects with VFA≥100 cm(2), OR in the first tertile was 0.788 (0.639-0.972, p=0.0257) relative to the second tertile set at 1.0. In subjects with multiple cardiovascular risk factors, visceral fat reduction correlated with a decrease in the number of such factors in subjects with VFA≥100cm(2), but not in those with VFA<100cm(2).