Abstract
Serum fatty acids are increasingly used in cross-sectional surveys and cohort studies as biomarkers of dietary fat intake; however, it is currently difficult to judge whether an individual has low or high fatty acid status, or whether the distribution of fatty acids of a group of people is low or high due to a lack of appropriate reference values. In the absence of interpretive criteria, the distribution of serum fatty acids from a suitable reference population can be used as an alternative. We describe the distribution of the fatty acid composition of the three most commonly reported lipid classes in serum; cholesterol ester, phospholipid and triacylgycerol. Results for each serum lipid class are presented as means (SD) and percentiles (5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, and 95) of serum fatty acids in non-fasting blood samples collected from a population based cross-sectional survey of New Zealand adults (n = 2793). These serum fatty acid reference ranges are applicable and relevant to Australia, United Kingdom, and United States as well as other countries where fat intakes are similar to New Zealand.
Highlights
The nutritional status of populations is normally assessed using a range of dietary, anthropometric and biochemical measurements
A number of serum fatty acids are valid biomarkers of dietary fat intake, and their measurement is becoming a complementary tool in nutrition surveys to monitor the types of fats consumed and in prospective studies designed to generate knowledge about the relation between various types of dietary fat and disease risk [1]
The fatty acid composition of at least one of the serum lipid classes was obtained from 2793 participants
Summary
The nutritional status of populations is normally assessed using a range of dietary, anthropometric and biochemical measurements Interpretive criteria for these measures are used to judge the adequacy of nutritional status. When scientific evidence is insufficient to establish cutpoints for a particular measurement, the distribution range of the measurement in the population can be used to judge if status is high or low for individuals or groups. There is little in the way of interpretive criteria or distribution reference ranges to judge serum fatty acid status of the individual. The usefulness of representative population-based serum fatty acid data reported as percentiles is obvious because it will enable researchers and epidemiologists to evaluate and judge what constitutes high or low fatty acid status. In this paper we report the percentiles of serum phospholipid, cholesterol ester, and triacylglycerol fatty acids from a nation-wide representative survey of New Zealand adults
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