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Is adiposity at normal body weight relevant for cardiovascular disease risk?

International Journal of Obesity volume 26, pages 176–183 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relation between adiposity and risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in normal weight (NW) individuals.

METHODS: Cross-sectional study using the sample of white people, aged from 17 to 60 y from the Québec Family Study and the Heritage Family Study. NW subjects with a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 25 kg/m2 (181 males and 265 females) and overweight (OW) subjects with a BMI between 25 and 30 kg/m2 (133 males and 114 females) were retained for this study. NW subjects were divided into quintiles of each adiposity variable, then the quintiles and the OW group were evaluated for the presence of CVD risk factors. Using logistic regression analysis, the odds ratio (OR) for the prevalence of risk factors for each quintile of each adiposity variable and the OW group was estimated relative to the first quintile in NW subjects. Mean values of adiposity variables were compared between the subjects with and without risk factors. In these analyses, age and study cohort effects were taken into account.

MEASUREMENTS: Percentage body fat (%fat) and fat mass (FM) measured by underwater weighing were available as adiposity variables. Risk factors included systolic and diastolic blood pressure, LDL and HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and fasting glucose.

RESULTS: Wide ranges of values were observed for adiposity variables. HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and fasting glucose in NW males and HDL cholesterol in NW females were significantly correlated with all adiposity variables. For males, higher quintiles of adiposity variables in the NW group and the OW group tended to have higher ORs compared to the first quintiles for the risk factor variables. The fifth quintiles of all adiposity variables had the highest ORs (3.15 for %fat and 3.77 for FM) and they were significantly different from the first quintiles. OW males had ORs similar to those of the fifth quintiles for the risk factor variables. On the other hand, for females, the relatively linear associations were less clear in the NW group. In NW males, the subjects with at least one risk factor had significantly higher %fat and FM than the subjects without risk factors. In NW females, no significant difference was observed for these adiposity variables between the subjects with and without risk factors.

CONCLUSION: NW males with elevated adiposity had higher prevalence of risk factors than NW males with less adiposity and the prevalence in the former was rather similar to that seen in OW males. On the other hand, measures of adiposity added little additional information to the BMI classification of NW on CVD risk factors in females.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Medical Research Council of Canada (PG-11811 and MT-13960) and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HL45670 (C Bouchard, PI), HL47323 (AS Leon), HL47317 (DC Rao), HL47327 (JS Skinner), and HL47321 (JH Wilmore)). Thanks are expressed to all research assistants, technicians and secretaries who have been involved in the data collection and laboratory work. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Drs J Bergeron, JP Després and A Nadeau, and their staff, of the Laval University Medical Center (CHUL) for the lipid and glucose assays, Dr J Volaufova for her advice on the statistical method, and N Laidlaw for her assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. C Bouchard is partially funded by the George A Bray Chair in Nutrition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Genomics Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    S Tanaka, K Togashi, T Rankinen & C Bouchard

  2. Division of Human Nutrition, National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Shinjuku-ko, Tokyo, Japan

    S Tanaka

  3. Faculty of Education, Mie University, Tsu, Mie, Japan

    K Togashi

  4. Physical Activity Sciences Laboratory, Laval University, Ste-Foy, Québec, Canada

    L Pérusse

  5. School of Kinesiology and Leisure Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

    AS Leon

  6. Division of Biostatistics and Departments of Genetics and Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, USA

    DC Rao

  7. Department of Kinesiology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

    JS Skinner

  8. Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    JH Wilmore

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Tanaka, S., Togashi, K., Rankinen, T. et al. Is adiposity at normal body weight relevant for cardiovascular disease risk?. Int J Obes 26, 176–183 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0801880

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