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Epidemiology and Population Health

Associations between a protective lifestyle behaviour score and biomarkers of chronic low-grade inflammation: a cross-sectional analysis in middle-to-older aged adults

International Journal of Obesity volume 46, pages 476–485 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objectives

Certain lifestyle behaviours may have a protective effect against low-grade systemic inflammation, which is linked to chronic disease. Our objective was to examine associations between a five-component protective lifestyle behaviour (PLB) score and a range of pro-inflammatory cytokines, adipocytokines, acute-phase response proteins, coagulation factors and white blood cells.

Subjects/methods

This was a cross-sectional study of 2045 middle-to-older aged men and women. Low-risk behaviours included never smoking, moderate alcohol intake, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, a high-quality diet (upper 40% Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension score) and a normal body mass index (BMI) (18.5–24.9 kg/m2). Linear and logistic regression analyses tested individual protective behaviour and PLB score associations with biomarkers.

Results

Analysis of individual low-risk behaviours revealed varied associations depending on the biomarker, with normal BMI showing the most consistent associations. Examination of the PLB score showed that compared to subjects with 4–5 protective behaviours, those with 0–1 protective behaviours had 1.4–3.8 increased odds of having a less favourable inflammatory profile. Following adjustment for BMI, significant trend relationships were observed between the number of protective behaviours and complement component 3 (P < 0.001), c-reactive protein (P < 0.001), interleukin 6 (P < 0.001), tumour necrosis factor alpha (P < 0.001) and white blood cell count (P < 0.001) concentrations.

Conclusions

These results suggest a cumulative protective effect of healthy lifestyle behaviours against systemic inflammation in middle-to-older aged adults which is independent of having a healthy body weight.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a research grant from the Irish Health Research Board (reference: HRC/2007/13) and Breakthrough Cancer Research (reference: BCR-2018-07 PH-UCC). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HRB Centre for Health and Diet Research, School of Public Health, University College Cork, Western Gateway Building, College Rd, Cork, Ireland

    Seán R. Millar, Janas M. Harrington, Ivan J. Perry & Catherine M. Phillips

  2. School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Catherine M. Phillips

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  1. Seán R. Millar
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Contributions

SRM, IJP, and CMP were responsible for conceptualisation; SRM conducted the statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript; CMP, JMH, and IJP were responsible for project administration and funding acquisition; SRM and JMH contributed to the methodology, including data collection and data management. All authors contributed to the critical review and editing of the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Seán R. Millar.

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Millar, S.R., Harrington, J.M., Perry, I.J. et al. Associations between a protective lifestyle behaviour score and biomarkers of chronic low-grade inflammation: a cross-sectional analysis in middle-to-older aged adults. Int J Obes 46, 476–485 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-021-01012-z

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