Prevalence of body composition phenotypes and their associations with glycemic, lipidic, and inflammatory biomarkers: a population-based study

Abstract: We aimed to verify the prevalence of body composition phenotypes and the association of glycemic, lipidic, and inflammatory biomarkers with such phenotypes. This is a cross-sectional, population-based study, with 720 participants aged 20 to 59 years. Body composition was assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Obesity was defined as body fat percentage ≥ 25% in males and ≥ 32% in females and sarcopenia by appendicular muscle mass index < 7.0kg/m2 in males and < 5.5kg/m2 in females. Sarcopenic obesity (SO) was defined as the presence of both sarcopenia and obesity. The prevalence of obesity, sarcopenia, and SO were 62.5%, 4.5%, and 6.2%, respectively. The association between biomarkers and phenotypes was verified using multinomial logistic regression models adjusted for confounding factors. The models showed that increased glycemia (OR = 3.39; 95%CI: 1.83-6.27), total cholesterol (TC) (OR = 2.24; 95%CI: 1.35-3.70), LDL-c (OR = 1.01; 95%CI: 1.00-1.02), VLDL-c (OR = 1.04; 95%CI: 1.02-1.06), non-HDL-c (OR = 1.02; 95%CI: 1.01-1.03), triglycerides (Tg) (OR = 3.66; 95%CI: 2.20-6.06), and decreased HDL-c (OR = 0.97; 95%CI: 0.95-0.98) were significantly associated with the obesity phenotype. Increased HOMA-IR (OR = 3.94; 95%CI: 1.69-9.21), LDL-c (OR = 1.01; 95%CI: 1.00-1.02), non-HDL-c (OR = 1.01; 95%CI: 1.00-1.02), and hs-CRP (OR = 2.42; 95%CI: 1.04-5.66) were independently associated with SO phenotype. Our findings indicate that increased glycemia, TC, Tg, LDL-c, VLDL-c, non-HDL-c, and decreased HDL-c may be indicators of the obesity phenotype and that increased hs-CRP, HOMA-IR, LDL-c, and non-HDL-c appear to be indicators of the SO phenotype. Those parameters may be used as additional markers for screening.