10-YEAR CHANGES IN THE OBESITY, ABDOMINAL ADIPOSITY, AND SERUM-LIPOPROTEIN CHOLESTEROL MEASURES OF WESTERN-SAMOAN MEN

Previously reported associations between abdominal adiposity and coron ary heart disease (CHD) may be mediated through serum lipids. In the p resent longitudinal study, 43 Western Samoan men who participated in a 1982 study were recontacted for a second determination of anthropomet ric and serum lipoprotein cholesterol levels. The men showed dramatic increases in weight (mean change +/- SD: 10.5 +/- 8.8 kg), abdominal c ircumference (10.0 +/- 7.6 cm), total cholesterol (49.5 +/- 26.4 mg/dl ), and non-HDL cholesterol (53.1 +/- 26.6 mg/dl). A new indicator was used to estimate changes in abdominal adiposity: the residual from the regression of change in the abdominal circumference on change in body weight (the AR). The AR was significantly correlated with changes in total (r = 0.38) and non-HDL cholesterol (r = 0.39). Changes in HDL ch olesterol were correlated with changes in weight only (r = -0.37). The se bivariate relations remained significant in multiple linear regress ion analyses. These longitudinal results are the first to suggest chan ges in abdominal adiposity are related to changes in total and non-HDL cholesterol levels.