What is the Impact of Sex on Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Patients with Chronic Kidney Diseases in China: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: It is controversial about the sex differences in the association of chronic kidney diseases (CKD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Thus, we examined CVD risk makers of CKD and non-CKD men and women in China, especially some “non-traditional” ones.Methods: This cross-sectional study used 7999 participants from the China Health and Nutrition Survey in 2009. This study examined the “traditional” risk factors and of CVD, such as lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC) and non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol(non-HDL-C).Also, the “non-traditional” risk factors of CVD were calculated, such as lipoprotein (a)(Lp(a)), white blood cell (WBC) count, visceral adiposity index (VAI) and lipid accumulation product (LAP).Results: Compared with men with CKD, higher levels of TC and LDL-C were observed in women with CKD. Furthermore, compared with men with CKD, the relative difference of WBC count was greater between women with CKD and their non-CKD ones. Meanwhile, the level of LAP and VAI of women with CKD were higher than men with CKD, which indicate the visceral obese. We also observed that the sex by CKD status interactions were statistically significant for TC, LDL-C, non-HDL-C, LAP, VAI and Lp(a) (all p <0.05). After adjusted the covariates, the sex differences effect on CVD risk factors among CKD patients couldn’t be eliminated as well. Conclusions: In CKD situation, women had greater lipid profiles and put on more visceral adiposity than men, which may indicate a higher CVD risk of women with CKD.