Study of impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular risk in a south Indian population

Background: In developing countries, obesity is the most prevalent metabolic disease and leads to an important cardiovascular and global mortality rate, either directly or indirectly through cardiovascular risk factors.
Aim: We sought to study the prevalence of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome (MS), and cardiovascular risk (CVR) in a south Indian population.
Setting and Design: A cross-sectional, single-center observational study in a cohort of 96 healthy male subjects.
Materials and Methods: Age, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), total lipid profiles, fating plasma glucose (FPG), post lunch plasma glucose (PLPG), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), creatinine and insulin were measured by standard methods.
Statistical Analysis: Student′s t-test and Chi-square test were used to determine differences between mean and frequency values of continuous and categorical variables.
Results: Significant differences were observed in the means of BMI (28.89 kg/m ² ) (P<0.0001), FPG (102.41 mg/dL) (P<0.0001), insulin (18.1 μU/L) (P<0.0001), PLPG (149.05 mg/dL) (P<0.0001), diastolic BP (84.41 mmHg) (P<0.01), total cholesterol (166.72 mg/dL) (P<0.001), low-density lipoprotein (90.65 mg/dL) (P<0.0001) in overweight subjects when compared to normal subjects . The prevalence of dyslipidemia, IGT, MS and CVR was significantly higher in younger (<45years) than middle-aged (46-55years) subjects.
Conclusions: The condition of being overweight, expressed as BMI, appears to be a good indicator of risk for IGT, MS, and CVR, particularly in young non-obese subjects (BMI<30).