Lipid profile disturbances are highly prevalent in Japanese-Brazilians

High prevalence of diabetes has been previously reported in Japanese-Brazilians. In an attempt to better estimate the cardiometabolic risk, this study evaluated lipid disorders in 1,330 Japanese-Brazilians (46% men) aged >30 years. Hypercholesterolemia was defined as serum cholesterol >= 240 mg/dL, hypertriglyceridemia as values >= 150 mg/dL and low-HDL-C as values <40 mg/dL and <50 mg/dl for men and women respectively. The prevalence of clyslipidemias was compared by the chi-square test between gender and glycemic category. Mean and Standard Deviation of lipids and lipoproteins were compared by the Student t-Test between gender. Hypertriglyceridemia was detected in 66.0% [95% CI: 63.5-68.5] of the population, being more common in men and increasing with deterioration of glucose metabolism. Mean level of triglycerides was 235.7 +/- 196.3 mg/dL. The prevalence of hypercholesterolemia was 24.4% [95% CI: 22.1- 26.7]. Low HDL-C was observed in 17.5% [95% CI: 14.5-20.5] of men and 43.0% [95% CI: 39.4- 46.6] of women but total / HDL-cholesterol ratio was lower in women (4.23 +/- 0.68 vs. 4.40 +/- 0.73, p<0.001). In Japanese-Brazilians, hypertriglyceridemia is the commonest dyslipidemia, in agreement with the high prevalence of diabetes. Men showed a worse lipid profile than women; it was suggested that the Western diet and living habits could be deteriorating their health.