Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. May 6, 2016; 7(2): 261-267
Published online May 6, 2016. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v7.i2.261
Factors associated with visceral fat accumulation in the general population in Okinawa, Japan
Shingo Arakaki, Tatsuji Maeshiro, Akira Hokama, Kunikazu Hoshino, Shuichi Maruwaka, Miwa Higashiarakawa, Gretchen Parrott, Tetsuo Hirata, Kozen Kinjo, Jiro Fujita
Shingo Arakaki, Tatsuji Maeshiro, Kunikazu Hoshino, Shuichi Maruwaka, Miwa Higashiarakawa, Gretchen Parrott, Tetsuo Hirata, Jiro Fujita, Department of Infectious, Respiratory, and Digestive Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0215, Japan
Akira Hokama, Department of Endoscopy, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0215, Japan
Kozen Kinjo, Okinawa Health Promotion Foundation, Haebaru, Okinawa 903-0215, Japan
Author contributions: Arakaki S designed, performed the research and drafted the manuscript; Maeshiro T, Hoshino K, Maruwaka S, Higashiarakawa M, Parrott G, Hirata T and Kinjo K provided technical support; Hokama A and Parrott G reviewed the manuscript; Hokama A and Fujita J supervised the project.
Institutional review board statement: The study design was approved by the Ethics Committee of University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan.
Informed consent statement: All subjects provided written informed consent for the use of their anonymized data for an epidemiological study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Akira Hokama, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor, Department of Endoscopy, University of the Ryukyus, 207 Uehara, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0215, Japan. hokama-a@med.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-98-8951144 Fax: +81-98-8951414
Received: January 18, 2016
Peer-review started: January 19, 2016
First decision: February 22, 2016
Revised: February 26, 2016
Accepted: March 14, 2016
Article in press: March 16, 2016
Published online: May 6, 2016
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the clinical and biochemical factors associated with visceral fat accumulation in the general population.

METHODS: We enrolled 1004 subjects who underwent a medical health checkup between April 2008 and March 2009. The medical health checkup included the following tests: Height, body weight, waist circumference (WC), systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, urinalysis, blood-cell counts, blood chemistry, electrocardiography, chest radiography, and abdominal computed tomography (CT) for visceral fat accumulation. The patients’ medical history and lifestyle factors were collected privately by nurses using a self-administered questionnaire, and they included questions regarding physical activity, sleep duration, dietary habits, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Visceral fat area (VFA) was defined as the sum of the intraperitoneal fat area at the level of the umbilicus with CT density in the range of -150 to -50 Hounsfield units.

RESULTS: The mean age and body mass index (BMI) of the study subjects were 57.0 years and 24.4 kg/m2. In both male and females, VFA was significantly and positively correlated with WC (r = 0.532, P < 0.01; r = 0.612, P < 0.01). Subjects with high levels of VFA were primarily male with significantly higher age, height, body weight, BMI, systolic blood pressure (BP), diastolic BP, and hemoglobin in all subjects (P < 0.05). A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that VFA had a positive relationship with age ≥ 56, BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2, and triglyceride level ≥ 149 in males (P < 0.05), whereas it had a positive relationship with age ≥ 58, BMI ≥ 24.4 kg/m2, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level < 40 mg/dL, and current drinking in females (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: These results suggest that gender differences exist in the clinical and biochemical parameters associated with visceral fat accumulation.

Keywords: Visceral fat accumulation, Computed tomography, Metabolic syndrome, Alcohol consumption, Waist circumference

Core tip: Although close association between visceral fat accumulation and metabolic syndrome has been established, little is known about what clinical and biochemical parameters affect visceral fat accumulation. We analyzed the clinical and biochemical parameters of the health checkup subjects and assessed the visceral fat area (VFA). A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that VFA had a positive relationship with age, body mass index (BMI), and triglyceride level in males, whereas it had a positive relationship with age, BMI, and current drinking in females. These results suggest that gender differences exist in the clinical and biochemical parameters associated with visceral fat accumulation.