Risk of Dyslipidemia in Obese Young Adult Subjects as Measured by Various Obesity Indices

Background: Obesity is strongly associated with atherogenic dyslipidemia phenotype and is an independent risk factor of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Besides body mass index (BMI), there are various obesity indices, namely waist circumference (WC) to detect central obesity, and percentage of body fat (%BF) using bioimpedance analysis (BIA) to detect peripheral-central obesity. The aim of this study is to determine which obesity index is better in predicting dyslipidemia. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 99 professionally active doctors working at tertiary hospital, from January to March 2021. Obesity was measured by obesity indices such as BMI, WC, and %BF using BIA. After that, the serum lipid profile was then measured. Dyslipidemia is a disorder of lipoprotein metabolism, including lipoprotein overproduction or deficiency that may be manifested by high total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) cholesterol. Results: Of the total 99 subjects, 49.5% were male, while 50.5% were female. The prevalence of obesity based on BMI, WC, and %BF using BIA was 57.6%, 74.8%, and 72.7%, respectively. Obesity based on BMI has 9.8 times the risk of having low HDL cholesterol levels (odds ratio (OR) = 9.814, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.213 - 79.379) and 4.6 times of having high triglycerides levels (OR = 4.618, 95% CI: 1.240 - 17.204). Meanwhile, central obesity based on WC has 3.1 times the risk of having high LDL cholesterol levels (OR = 3.100, 95% CI: 1.170 - 8.218). On the contrary, the results of the analysis on obesity based on %BF on lipid profile were not significant. Conclusions: Obesity based on BMI and WC measurements are better than %BF in predicting dyslipidemia. J Endocrinol Metab. 2022;12(3):102-106 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem819