Identification of hypertriglyceridemia based on bone density, body fat mass, and anthropometry in a Korean population

Hypertriglyceridemia is strongly associated with the risks of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and metabolic syndrome. The relationship between hypertriglyceridemia or high triglyceride levels and bone mineral density remains controversial. Furthermore, to date, no study has simultaneously examined the association among hypertriglyceridemia, bone area, bone mineral content, bone mineral density, body fat mass, and anthropometrics. The present study aimed to evaluate the association among hypertriglyceridemia, anthropometrics and various bone density and body fat composition variables to identify the best indicator of hypertriglyceridemia in a Korean population.

The data were obtained from the fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In total, 3918 subjects aged 20–80 years participated in this study. In the variable analysis of the waist circumference (WC), trunk fat mass (Trk-Ft), body mass index, etc., a binary logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the significance of the differences between the normal group and hypertriglyceridemia groups.

In both men and women, the WC showed the strongest association with hypertriglyceridemia in the crude analysis (odds ratio (OR) = 1.738 [confidence interval = 1.529–1.976] and OR = 2.075 [1.797–2.397]), but the Trk-Ft was the most strongly associated with the disease after adjusting for age and body mass index (adjusted OR = 1.565 [1.262–1.941] and adjusted OR = 1.730 [1.291–2.319]). In particular, the Pelvis area (Plv-A) was the most significant among the bone variables in women (adjusted OR = 0.641 [0.515–0.796]). In the predictive power analysis, the best indicator of hypertriglyceridemia was WC in women (the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.718 [0.685–0.751]) and Trk-Ft in men (AUC = 0.672 [0.643–0.702]). The WC was also the most predictive among the anthropometric variables in men (AUC = 0.670 [0.641–0.700]). The strength of the association and predictive power was stronger in women than in men.

The WC in women and Trk-Ft in men exhibited the best predictive power for hypertriglyceridemia. Our findings support the use of basic information for the identification of hypertriglyceridemia or high triglyceride levels in initial health screening efforts.