Four-Year Trends in Cardiometabolic Risk Factors according to Baseline Abdominal Obesity Status in West-African Adults : The Benin Study

Abstract EN

The study examined whether abdominal obesity (AO) according to waist circumference was associated with more unfavourable changes in other cardiometabolic risk (CMR) factors in sub-Saharan Africans.

The study included 541 randomly selected and apparently healthy subjects (50% women) aged 25–60 years.

Complete data at baseline, 24, and 48 months later was available in 366 subjects.

AO was associated with higher CMR at baseline and over the follow-up period, except for high blood pressure.

A significantly higher incidence of high ratio of total cholesterol : HDL-cholesterol (TC/HDL-C) was associated with AO.

Controlling for WC changes, age, baseline diet, and lifestyles, the relative risk (RR) of low HDL-C and high TC/HDL-C was 3.2 (95% CI 1.06–9.61) and 7.4 (95% CI 2.01–25.79), respectively, in AO men; the RR was not significant in women.

Over a four-year period, AO therefore appeared associated with an adverse evolution of cholesterolemia in the study population.