Association between lifestyle-related disorders and visceral fat mass in Japanese males: a hospital based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to examine the association between lifestyle-related disorders and visceral fat mass, and to estimate an appropriate cutoff value for visceral fat mass that correlated with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between July 2012 and August 2013 at Bange Kosei General Hospital, in Fukushima, Japan. All study participants were adult males who had completed voluntary medical check-ups that included estimation of visceral fat mass by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Participants were without past histories of atherosclerotic complications or were not currently taking medications for lifestyle-related disorders. Multivariate analysis was performed to estimate the association between lifestyle-related disorders and quartiles of visceral fat mass. Results: Of 536 total respondents, 442 were included in the analysis. Mean participant age was 56 years, and mean values of BMI, WC, and visceral fat mass were 24.1 kg/m2, 85.9 cm, and 2.1 kg, respectively. Visceral fat mass ≥1.8 kg was positively associated with an increased prevalence of dyslipidemia, elevated blood pressure, and impaired glucose tolerance. Cutoff values that correlated with visceral fat mass (≥1.8 kg) were 85.3 cm for WC and 23.25 kg/m2 for BMI. Conclusion: Visceral fat mass ≥1.8 kg was positively associated with lifestyle-related disorders and closely related to WC and BMI cutoff values used to diagnose obesity. BIA may be a useful method for assessing visceral fat mass, and these findings provide important evidence for the use of BIA in the early detection of central obesity for preventing lifestyle-related disorders.