The association of body weight status with hypertriglyceridemia among community-dwelling older adults in regional China

Aim To investigate associations of body weight with hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) among older adults in regional China. Methods In this cross-sectional study, non-diabetic community-dwelling adults aged 60 + years and not receiving anti-lipid medications were randomly determined from Nanjing municipality, China, in 2023. HTG was defined based on fasting triglyceride concentration. Body weight status was assessed with waist circumstance (WC) and body mass index (BMI), respectively. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses were conducted to compute odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for examining associations of WC-based and BMI-based body weight status with HTG. Results The prevalence of HTG was 29.3% among the overall 19,668 participants. Moreover, it was 25.3 and 32.3% among those without and with WC-based obesity, separately, and 22.6%, 33.1 and 39.9% for participants with normal BMI-based weight, overweight and obesity, respectively. Compared to their corresponding counterparts with normal weight, participants with WC-based obesity (OR = 1.37, 95%CI = 1.28, 1.44), BMI-based overweight (OR = 1.66, 95%CI = 1.55, 1.78) and obesity (OR = 2.14, 95%CI = 1.95, 2.35) were each more likely to experience HTG after adjustment for potential confounders. Additionally, when looking at the combined categories of WC- and BMI-based weight status, the positive associations between body weight status and HTG were also observed, with an exception of that the statistical estimate was not significant for subjects with WC-based obesity and normal BMI-based weight. Meaningfully, the scenarios of relationships between body weight and HTG among age−/sex-stratified participants were similar to those in overall subjects. Conclusion Either WC-based weight, BMI-based weight, or their combined status was positively associated with HTG among the study older adults in regional China. This study has important health implications, suggesting that specific WC- or/and BMI-based body weight status shall be considered in clinical practice or public health campaigns for population-level effective HTG management.