Effect of Physical Activity Type on Serum Remnant Cholesterol Level in Korean Adults: A Nationwide Population-Based...

Remnant cholesterol (RC) is an important contributor to cardiovascular disease development. We aimed to investigate the effect of physical activity (PA) type on serum RC levels in Korean adults.

We used data from the 2016-2021 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and included 32,877 adults. Serum RC was calculated by subtracting the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels from the total cholesterol level. Hyper-remnant cholesterolemia was defined as a serum RC level of ≥30 mg/dL. PA was classified into aerobic, resistance, and walking exercises, which involved practicing 150 min of moderate, 75 min of high-intensity PA, or a combination of the 2, per week; doing resistance exercise more than 2 days per week; walking more than 150 min per week, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between serum RC and PA type.

Among those aged <65 years, the odds ratio (OR) of hyper-remnant cholesterolemia was 1.23 times higher in the group that did not perform resistance exercise than in the group that performed more than 2 resistance exercises per week (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12-1.36, p < 0.0001). Among those aged ≥65 years, the OR of hyper-remnant cholesterolemia was 1.31 times higher in the group that did not practice walking exercise than in the group that walked for more than 150 min per week (95% CI: 1.11-1.55, p < 0.01).

This study revealed that resistance exercise in those aged <65 years and walking exercise in those aged ≥65 years were significantly associated with low RC levels in Korean adults.