THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WEIGHT AND RESPONSE TO CHOLESTEROL-LOWERING DIETS IN WOMEN

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether factors related to body weight might i nfluence the cholesterol lowering response to diet. DESIGN: Run-in die t followed by crossover to low fat diets; average response is reported . SUBJECTS: Sixty-three subjects (30 men and 33 women) with moderately elevated plasma cholesterol levels. MEASUREMENTS: Lipid and anthropom etric measurements. Data were analyzed as a repeated measures analysis of variance with lipid lowering response in all combined cholesterol lowering diets compared to baseline. RESULTS: LDL cholesterol lowering was significantly affected by BMI in women (P = 0.01) but not in men (P = 0.54). There was also a weak effect of waist-hip (W/H) ratio on r esponse (P = 0.127) in women, with the lower responders having a highe r W/H ratio but there was no effect of W/H ratio in men (P = 0.86). CO NCLUSION: These results suggest that overweight women with elevated pl asma cholesterol may be less responsive to reducing their cholesterol levels with diet.