Kaess Bernhard M, Jóźwiak Jacek, Nelson Christopher P, Lukas Witold, Mastej Mirosław, Windak Adam, Tomasik Tomasz, Grzeszczak Władysław, Tykarski Andrzej, Gąsowski Jerzy, Ślęzak-Prochazka Izabella, Ślęzak Andrzej, Charchar Fadi J, Sattar Naveed, Thompson John R, Samani Nilesh J, Tomaszewski Maciej
Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom ; Deutsches Herzzentrum, Technische Universität, Munich, Germany ; Department for Internal Medicine II, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Department of Public Health, Częstochowa University of Technology, Częstochowa, Poland ; Silesian Analytical Laboratories, Katowice, Poland.
PLoS One. 2014 Jan 31;9(1):e86837. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086837. eCollection 2014.
The impact of fast changes in obesity indices on other measures of metabolic health is poorly defined in the general population. Using the Polish accession to the European Union as a model of political and social transformation we examined how an expected rapid increase in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference relates to changes in lipid profile, both at the population and personal level.
Through primary care centres in 444 Polish cities, two cross-sectional nationwide population-based surveys (LIPIDOGRAM 2004 and LIPIDOGRAM 2006) examined 15,404 and 15,453 adult individuals in 2004 and 2006, respectively. A separate prospective sample of 1,840 individuals recruited in 2004 had a follow-up in 2006 (LIPIDOGRAM PLUS).
Two years after Polish accession to European Union, mean population BMI and waist circumference increased by 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively. This tracked with a 7.6% drop in HDL-cholesterol and a 2.1% increase in triglycerides (all p<0.001) nationwide. The direction and magnitude of the population changes were replicated at the personal level in LIPIDOGRAM PLUS (0.7%, 0.3%, 8.6% and 1.8%, respectively). However, increases in BMI and waist circumference were both only weakly associated with HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides changes prospectively. The relation of BMI to the magnitude of change in both lipid fractions was comparable to that of waist circumference.
Moderate changes in obesity measures tracked with a significant deterioration in measures of pro-atherogenic dyslipidaemia at both personal and population level. These associations were predominantly driven by factors not measureable directly through either BMI or waist circumference.
