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
Core Tip

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.