Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels by Direct Assay and Their Association with Lifestyle Factors among Middle-Aged Men and Women / 日本農村医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

Background: Recently a new direct assay for measurement oflow-density lipoprotein cholesterol has been developed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the new method and elucidate the association of lifestyle factors with the serum levels of lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol determined by the direct assay (LDLC/d) among healthy adults in a rural district. At the same time the levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were worked out using the Friedewald formula (LDLC/f) and a comparison was made between LDLC/d and LDLC/f.<BR>Method: Data obtained during the medical checkups in 1998 were used. LDLC/d was estimated by use of the direct assay, Cholestest (Daiichi Pure Chemicals, Japan). The subjects consisted of 678 middle-aged men and women ranging from 40-65 years of age. Co-variance analysis was performed to examine the association of lifestyle factors with lipid and lipoprotein levels.<BR>Results: An inverse relationship was observed between LDLC/d and alcohol drinking among both male and female subjects. The body mass index (BMI) was positively related with LDLC/d among female subjects. Eating between meals was positively related with LDLC/d among males. The association of LDLC/d with these lifestyle factors was stronger than that of LDLC/f. The levels of LDLC/d weresignificantly higher than LDLC/f, suggesting that a different classification of hypercholesterolemia could be formulated by those two levels.<BR>Conclusion: These results indicated that LDLC/d has an advantage over LDLC/f. Further research should focus on the standardization of themethod using LDLC/d to categorize the type of hypercholesterolemia.