Relationships between body composition, anthropometrics, and standard lipid panels in a normative population

More than one third of adults in the United States (US) meet the clinical criteria for a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, but often diagnosis is challenging due to healthcare access, costs and discomfort with the process and invasiveness associated with a standard medical examination. Less invasive and more accessible approaches to collecting biometric data may have utility in identifying individuals at risk of diagnoses, such as metabolic syndrome or dyslipidemia diagnoses. Body composition is one such source of biometric data that can be non-invasively acquired in a home or community setting that may provide insight into an individual's propensity for a metabolic syndrome diagnosis. Here we investigate possible associations between body composition, anthropometrics and lipid panels in a normative population.

Healthy participants visited the Lab100 clinic location at a hospital setting in New York City and engaged in a wellness visit led by a nurse practitioner. Blood was analyzed at point-of-care using the Abbott Piccolo Xpress portable diagnostic analyzer (Abbott Laboratories, IL, USA) and produced direct measures of total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C), very-low density lipoprotein (VLDL-C), and triglycerides (TG). Body composition and anthropometric data were collected using two separate pieces of equipment during the same visit (Fit3D and InBody570). Regression analysis was performed to evaluate associations between all variables, after adjusting for age, sex, race, AUDIT-C total score (alcohol use), and current smoking status.

Data from 199 participants were included in the analysis. After adjusting for variables, percentage body fat (%BF) and visceral fat levels were significantly associated with every laboratory lipid value, while waist-to-hip ratio also showed some significant associations. The strongest associations were detected between %BF and VLDL-C cholesterol levels (t = 4.53, p = 0.0001) and Triglyceride levels (t = 4.51, p = 0.0001).

This initial, exploratory analysis shows early feasibility in using body composition and anthropometric data, that can easily be acquired in community settings, to identify people with dyslipidemia in a normative population.