Relationships of age, menopause and central obesity on cardiovascular disease risk factors in Chinese women

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the inter-relationships of age-and menopause-related changes of general obesity and body fat distribution and their independent effects on cardiovascular risk factors. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS: One-hundred and thirty-six premenopausal and 193 postmenopausal Chinese women with body mass index (BMI)`30 kgam 2 . MEASUREMENTS: Anthropometric surrogates of general obesity (BMI, total body fat percentage) and central obesity (waist-to-hip ratio, centrality index) were measured. Blood pressure, 75 g oral glucose tolerance test, glycosylated hemoglobin A 1c and lipid pro®les were also measured. RESULTS: Signi®cant correlation coef®cients between age, general obesity, central obesity and cardiovascular disease risk factors were noted. Through the menopausal transition, the BMI and total body fat percentage were increased signi®cantly. After adjustments for age and BMI, the postmenopausal women showed higher android fat percentage, centrality index, glycosylated hemoglobin A 1c , serum concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and atherogenic indices than the premenopausal women. In multiple stepwise regression models, age exerted independent effects on oral glucose tolerance test 2 h plasma glucose level, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol level, and LDL cholesterol. Menopause was an independent variable in relation to the changes of glycosylated hemoglobin A 1c , total and LDL cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels and atherogenic indices. The centrality index was the major independent variable of all the cardiovascular disease risk factors, except total and LDL cholesterol level. However, the variation of total body fat percentage had no independent effect on any cardiovascular disease risk factors. CONCLUSION: Through the aging and menopausal effects, women will increase total body fat content, favoring the central body fat distribution. Age, menopause and central obesity were all independent and signi®cant factors to the cardiovascular disease risk factors in Chinese women.

Individual differences in physical activity are closely associated with changes in body weight in adult female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

“…2,20,31,34) that ovariectomy leads to a 14 -21% increase in weight within several weeks of ovariectomy. Also, it is well documented that along with weight gain, an increase in BMI and an increase in adiposity occur during the menopausal transition in women (18,39,52,64,67,103,113). Thus it is important to note that the monkeys in this study were ovariectomized.…”

Comparison of Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) Between Postmenopausal Women with Central Obesity and Postmenopausal Nonobese Women

“…Among these factors the android pattern of body fat distribution seems to be the major issue. The android body fat distribution, glucose intolerance, hyperlipidaemia and hypertension appear to be clustered together in the same subject 9 .…”

Survival benefit of abdominal adiposity: a 6-year follow-up study with Dual X-ray absorptiometry in 3,978 older adults

“…This has led to the postulation that obesity might be less harmful or even protective in old age (Al Snih et al 2007;Reis et al 2009;Auyeung et al 2010;Lea et al 2009). Yet, BMI is a measure of overall adiposity, which makes no distinction between fat elsewhere and abdominal fat, the latter being metabolically more harmful (Lapidus et al 1994;Chang et al 2000;Snijder et al 2006). Some have demonstrated that overall adiposity and abdominal adiposity act in different directions regarding the risk of metabolic diseases such as diabetes or cardiovascular diseases (Lapidus et al 1994;Lafortuna et al 2006).…”