Visceral Adiposity and Atherogenic Indices and Plasma Apolipoproteins levels in Young Adults in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was prompted by the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Nigeria, suspected increasing visceral adiposity index (VAI) and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) as plausible biomarkers of NCDs. We investigated the relationship between VAI, plasma apolipoproteins A1 and B, lipid, and AIP as surrogate measures for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.  A systematic random sampling technique was used to select 221 participants aged 19 to 31 years for this cross-sectional study. Plasma cholesterol, apoA1, and apoB levels were measured. AIP was computed using triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (HDL-c). VAI was calculated using body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, triglyceride, and HDL-c levels. For the relationship between VAI and other parameters, linear stepwise regression models were used. The mean VAI and AIP were 1.11±0.57 and -0.32±0.49 respectively, and the mean VAI was significantly higher in women (1.42±0.6) than men (0.90±0.39) (p<0.001) while the mean AIP was not different. For all, CVD risk was high in 12.2%, medium in 8.6%, and low in 79.2%. In both men and women, there were strong positive associations between VAI and HDL-c, LDL-c, Triglyceride, LDL-c/HDL-c ratio, and AIP. The stepwise regression analysis produced models that removed AIP and valid equations for predicting VAI with r2 of 0.95 and 0.93 for men and women, respectively.

Our findings suggest that VAI would be a good tool for measuring adipose tissue dysfunction and its associated CVD risk in the study population. AIP was also supported as a proxy measure for CVD prediction.