The variation in blood lipid levels described by various measures of overall and abdominal obesity in Danish men and women aged 35-65 years

The purpose of the study was to describe the proportion of the variation in blood lipid levels [high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), total cholesterol, very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDLC) and triglycerides] explained by different measures of overall obesity [body fat (kg), percentage body fat, or body mass index (kg/m2)] and abdominal obesity [waist/hip ratio, waist/thigh ratio or waist circumference (cm)]. This was done in a Danish population sample of 1523 men and 1464 women aged 35-65 years. This was done to assess, on a population level, the effects on the different lipid levels to be expected from a possible reduction in the level of obesity. The proportion of the variation in lipid levels explained by the various measures of overall obesity differed only slightly, as did the proportion of the variation in lipid levels explained by the various measures of abdominal obesity. In men more of the variation in the blood lipids could be explained by overall obesity than by abdominal obesity, whereas in women the reverse was true. More of the variation in the lipids was explained by overall obesity in men than in women, but more of the variation was explained by abdominal obesity in women than in men. In women the obesity measures predicted between 0% and 11% of the variation in lipid level, and in men the obesity measures predicted between 0% and 14% of the variation. Between 16% and 30% in women and between 5% and 21% in men of the variation in the lipid levels could be explained by obesity, age and several lifestyle variables. Of this, obesity was responsible for up to 53% in women and up to 71% in men of the total explainable variation, and thus accounted for a substantial part of the variation in the present study. Age was much more important for the variation in the lipids in women than in men. In women almost all the variation in LDLC and total cholesterol was explained by age. Both overall obesity (BF%) and abdominal obesity (WH ratio) contributed to the explanation of the variation in HDLC, VLDLC and triglycerides, whereas there was no, or very little, effect of abdominal obesity on the variation in LDL or total cholesterol.