Anthropometry and lipoproteins-related characteristics of young adult males in Taiwan

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of obesity and the lipoprotein-related characteristics among young male adults in the Taiwan area. DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: After cluster sampling, a cross-sectional survey with a total of 936 males (mean age 20, 18-24) were enrolled. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The distribution of anthropometric and lipoprotein-related variables and their correlations in young male adults were measured. The prevalence of obesity by different criterion and the lipoprotein characteristics of obese and non-obese were analyzed separately. RESULTS: The prevalence of obesity was 9.6% by the criterion of body weight greater than 20% of ideal body weight, or 12.6% by the criterion of body mass index (BMI) greater than 25. The obese subjects had significantly higher serum total cholesterol (CHOL), triglyceride (TG) and apo-lipoprotein B (apo B) and lower high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels than the non-obese. The apo A1 levels were 141.3 and 141.9 mg/dl and the lipoprotein [a] (Lp[a]) were 17.4 and 17.1 mg/dl in obese and non-obese respectively, the difference being not statistically significant. Pearson correlation coefficients of body weight, body height, BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference and waist-hip ratio (WHR) to lipoprotein variables showed that both BMI and WHR are positively correlated with CHOL, TG and apo B, but negatively correlated with HDL-C. Furthermore the lipoprotein variables were better correlated with BMI than WHR in lean subjects (BMI < 25). However, this phenomenon was quite different in obese (BMI > 25) subjects, where the WHR was more highly correlated with lipoprotein variables than with BMI. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of obesity is slightly higher than reported in previous studies in Taiwan. The obese subjects had various abnormal lipoprotein metabolic characteristics such as higher CHOL, TG, and apo B and lower HDL-C levels than non-obese subjects. The BMI was more highly correlated with lipoprotein variables than was WHR in lean subjects, but the WHR was more highly correlated with lipoprotein variables than was BMI in obese subjects.