Principal Component Factor Analysis of Cardiovascular Risk Factors among Punjabi Female Population

Background: The cardiovascular diseases are one of the primary causes of total mortality in India. However, systematic population based data related cardiovascular risk factors are very scanty in Punjab state of India. Therefore, present study was undertaken to analyze cardiovascular risk factors among females of Brahmin and Jat sikh population using principal component analysis (PCFA). It has been used for seventeen factors including anthropometric, physiometric, metabolic and glucose tolerance. Method: A total of 428 females (199 Brahmin and 229 Jat sikh) were recruited for the present study to identify cardiovascular risk factors. Blood samples from 100 (50 Brahmin and 50 Jat Sikh) out of total 428 individuals were obtained. Different anthropometric, physiometric and metabolic variables were taken. Principle component factor analysis (PCFA) was applied to extract orthogonal components. Relationships between components were explained by factor loadings. Results: PCFA reduced 16 risk factors to 7 uncorrelated components that explained maximum (87%) of the total variance among the females of both the groups. Factor 1 has high loading of the traits that reflects obesity related traits like body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) for both female populations and explained the largest portion of total variance (36% for Brahmin; 34% for Jat Sikh). Factor 2 is loaded predominantly with total cholesterol (TC), high density and low density lipoproteins (HDL & LDL), LDL-HDL ratio and TC-HDL ratio for Brahmin female population. Comparably factor 2 is loaded with SBP, DBP and pulse pressure (PP) among Jat Sikh female population. Therefore, factor 2 is identified as responsible for dyslipidemia for Brahmin and hypertension for Jat Sikh. Conclusion: Factor analysis reduced 16 inter-correlated cardiovascular risk factors to 7 newly defined factors. As these factors are uncorrelated, each one can be interpreted to represent a distinct phenotype underlying cardiovascular risk in the females of Brahmin and Jat Sikh Punjabi population.