Indicadores de obesidade abdominal e suas correlações com níveis de lipídeos séricos em idosos

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the correlation between anthropometric indicators of abdominal obesity and serum lipid levels in the elderly. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical, home-based, on elderly people (60 years or more) of both sexes. Were assessed the following variables: socio-demographic, indicative of abdominal obesity and lipid fractions. Abdominal obesity was determined by waist circumference (WC), abdominal circumference (AC) and waist / hip ratio (WHR). The lipid profile was measured using the fractional triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and non high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL). Results: Were studied 321 elderly (67,6% women), the mean age was 71,04 years old (± 9,08) for men and 71,15 years old (± 8,1) for women. The total elderly population, 50,8% were aged between 60 and 69 years; 52,3% were nonwhite; 46,7% had 1-4 years of study; 58,9% were married. The men had mean values of WC and WHR higher than in women (p &#8804; 0,001). However the average value of AC was higher among women, but not statistically significant. Women had mean or median values than men in all lipid variables (p &#8804; 0,05). There were significant correlations between indicators of abdominal obesity and lipid fractions only in the group of women. The WC, AC and WHR correlated with TG and HDL. WHR correlated only with the non-HDL. The highest coefficients were found between WHR and TG (r = 0,292, p <0,01) and between WC and HDL (r = - 0,281, p <0,01). The WC was a predictor of 9,2% of the variation in HDL and WHR of 7,3% of the variation of the TG. Conclusions: WC and WHR were the indicators of abdominal obesity that best correlated with serum lipids in elderly women. The WC and WHR were predictive of changes in HDL and TG women, respectively. The results shown here demonstrate the need for surveillance of risk factors for chronic diseases, where differences between sexes and age groups should be considered. The non-HDL fraction should be assessed more frequently, and the AC in conjunction with the WC.