Favourable association of leg fat with cardiovascular risk factors

Abstract

Objectives. To assess the association of trunk and leg fat mass (FM) and leg lean tissue mass (LTM) with conventional cardiovascular risk factors. Design. Cross-sectional study. Setting and subjects. We studied 1249 men and 3007 women (age 20-79 years) who attended a research institute for a health checkup between October 1995 and February 2004. Main outcome measures. Body mass index, waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose and haemoglobin A 1C were measured. Trunk FM, leg FM and leg LTM were obtained by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. We evaluated the associations between the indices for regional body composition and cardiovascular risk factors, which included hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, hypo-HDL cholesterolaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, dyslipidaemia and diabetes mellitus. Results. Increase in WC and HC respectively showed increase and decrease in odds ratios of cardiovascular risk factors. Increase in trunk FM by 1 kg significantly increased the risk of the cardiovascular risk factors with the odds ratios ranging between 1.11 and 1.45. Increase in leg FM by 1 kg significantly decreased the risk with the odds ratios ranging between 0.52 and 0.90, except for the nonsignificant results for hypercholesterolaemia and hypo-HDL cholesterolaemia in men. Odds ratios of 1 kg increase in leg LTM were only significant for dyslipidaemia in men and hypercholesterolaemia in women (both 0.93). Conclusions. WC and HC showed opposite and independent associations with cardiovascular risk factors. The favourable association of HC was mainly attributable to that of leg FM.

Hip Circumference and Incident Metabolic Risk Factors in Chinese Men and Women: The People's Republic of China Study

“…9,[11][12][13][14][15]17,21,36,38 We know of six studies that have used a cross-sectional design to examine the association of hip circumference with metabolic syndrome or its component risk factors (blood pressure, lipids, and glucose). 10,12,13,16,21,22,38 Two of these studies were conducted among Australians.…”

“…After adjustment for one another and for BMI, waist and hip circumferences have been shown to have independent and opposite associations with cardiovascular risk factors, coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and mortality. 6,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Studies examining components of hip and waist circumferences, specifically, leg and trunk fat, and leg lean mass, using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) or computed tomography (CT) have found positive associations of trunk fat and inverse associations of thigh or leg fat with insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and other metabolic risk factors. These associations have been observed in black, white, and Japanese populations.…”

“…These associations have been observed in black, white, and Japanese populations. 8,22,[24][25][26][27] To our knowledge, no studies have evaluated the association of hip circumference, independent of waist circumference or BMI, with cardiovascular risk factors in a Chinese population. It is well established that adiposity is associated with metabolic risk.…”

Associations of anthropometric characteristics with blood cholesterol fractions among adults. The Greek EPIC study

“…Hip circumference has also attracted the interest of investigators as a possible independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, with evidence accumulating that it is inversely associated with morbidity and mortality from these diseases Williams et al, 1997;Lissner et al, 2001;Seidell et al, 2001;Snijder et al, 2004b;Sakai et al, 2005). Furthermore, the interest on metabolic syndrome highlighted the role of adipose tissue distribution in human pathology (Carr et al, 2004;Wahrenberg et al, 2005).…”

Relationship between Large and Small Arterial Compliance and Regional Body Composition in Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults

“…Measurements of WAC and WHR may indicate adipose tissue storage by visceral and subcutaneous layers, and increased WAC and WHR are known risk factors of CVD events in people middle-aged and elderly adults 23) . Increased HIC, while representing increased subcutaneous fat in the hip and increased lean mass in the lower extremities, may actually be part of some preventive mechanism of atherosclerosis-related disease 24) . One may infer from the above that increased fat mass of the abdomen (visceral and subcutaneous) relative to fat and lean mass of the hip and lower extremities may in fact induce a weakening of the vascular structure and function of large arteries.…”