The relationship of high sensitivity C-reactive protein to percent body fat mass, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist circumference in a Taiwanese population

Abstract

BackgroundHigh-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is an easily measured inflammatory biomarker. This study compared the association of percent body fat mass (%FM), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with hs-CRP in a Taiwanese population.MethodsA total of 1669 subjects aged 40-88 years were recruited in 2004 in a metropolitan city in Taiwan. The relationships between obesity indicators and a high level of hs-CRP were examined using multivariate logistic regression analysis. The upper quartile of the hs-CRP distributions was defined as the high category group. The areas under the curve (AUCs) of the receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated for all obesity indicators to compare their relative ability to correctly classify subjects with a high level of hs-CRP.ResultsAfter multivariate adjustment, the odds ratio for %FM was the only significant indicator that was associated with a high level of hs-CRP in men (1.55, 95% CI: 1.07-2.25). All indicators were associated with a high level of hs-CRP in women. In men, the AUCs for %FM were significantly higher than those for BMI, WHR, and WC, when demographic and lifestyle behaviors were considered (p < 0.001 for all comparisons), but they were not significantly different in females.ConclusionsOur study demonstrates that %FM is the only obesity indicator that is strongly associated with a high level of hs-CRP after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, lifestyle behaviors and components of metabolic syndrome in both genders in a Taiwanese population aged forty years and over. In men, %FM had the greatest ability to classify subjects with a high level of hs-CRP when only demographic and lifestyle behaviors were considered. Our study finding has important implications for the screening of obesity in community settings.

Distribution and determinants of C‐reactive protein in the older adult population: European Prospective Investigation into Cancer‐Norfolk study

“…As such, in the Framingham study , visceral adipose tissue (assessed by multidetector computed tomography) was associated with CRP after controlling for BMI and waist circumference, suggesting that BMI or waist do not completely account for visceral adiposity. Consistently, percentage body fat mass was reported to be a better predictor of high serum levels of CRP than any of the anthropometric measures in a Taiwanese population study . However, it is useful to understand the association between serum CRP and anthropometric measures as they are more convenient to measure.…”

Chronic Inflammation Is Correlated with Percentage of Body Fat Independent of the Burden of Infection

“…In another population-based study, the percentage of fat mass explained the highest percentage of the variability of CRP in women [30]. Lin et al reported that the percentage of body fat mass was strongly associated with elevated hs-CRP levels in both genders [32].…”

“…A few studies have used measures of body fat to investigate the association between hs-CRP and obesity [29][30][31][32]. In monozygotic twins, CRP concentration was strongly related to both total and central abdominal obesity, independent of genetic influences [29].…”

C-reactive protein and later preeclampsia

“…A possible explanation for these results is that adipocytes are the major source of basal IL-6 and TNF-a secretion, which are the primary stimuli for hepatic CRP production [47]. Therefore, the sensitivity of CRP as a biomarker of inflammation is lower in overweight/obese women, as this is a cytokine, which is usually in high concentration when there is a substantial fat store [48][49][50]. Only these two studies stratified the analysis by BMI, which proved to be a better analytical strategy than the simple inclusion of BMI as a covariate in logistic or linear models.…”