Associations of vitamin D status and metabolic dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemic waist phenotype in apparently healthy adults

Background: Recent studies have shown that Vitamin D deficiency is very common globally. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with lipid metabolism. A relationship between vitamin D levels and waist circumference (WC) has been observed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between vitamin D status and metabolic dyslipidemia and the hypertriglyceridemic waist phenotype.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 265 healthy Tehran adults. Hypertriglyceridemic waist phenotype (HTGWP) was described as serum triacylglycerol concentrations >150 mg/dL and concurrent WC > 88 cm (women) and >102 cm (men). Dyslipidemia was defined as: 1) TG level of >150 mg/dL 2) HDL > 40 mg/dL for men or >50 mg/dL for women, as has been previously described.

Results: Current study's results demonstrated that HTGWP was significantly associated with weight, age, WC, hip, fat percent, TG, lipid profile, ALT and BMI. We found 77% reduction in the chances of developing metabolic dyslipidemia in suficient satus of vitamin D in compare to deficiency, although the significancy was mariginal, OR: 0.33, 95% CI of 0.09 to 1.21, P = 0.09. However, our results revealed that vitamin D deficiency, compared with normal status, can increase the risk of phenotype 1 (high TG/high WC); OR: 3.86 and 95% CI from 0.86 to 0.99, p for trend = 0.05.

Conclusions: Significant associations were found between vitamin D status and HTGWP. In addition, there was a relationship between vitamin D and lipid profiles. There is a direct correlation between TG and waist circumference in insulin resistance in healthy Tehran adults.