A Study of Correlation between Intra-abdominal Fat and Lipid Profiles and Some Anthropometric Parameters in Vegetarian and Non-vegetarian Middle Aged Women of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh

In this cross-sectional study, forty seven randomly collected middle aged vegetarian (n=30) and nonvegetarian (n=17) women between the age group 40 60 years of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India, were included to measure height, weight, BMI, intraabdominal fat, five skinfold measurements, viz. biceps, triceps, subscapular, suprailiac and abdominal and seven lipid profiles, viz. serum cholesterol, High Density Lipoprotein-C (HDL-C), Low Density Lipoprotein-C (LDL-C), Triglycerides, VLDL-C, Total Cholesterol : High Density Lipoprotein-C ratios and Low Density Lipoprotein C : High Density Lipoprotein–C ratios. Results indicate statistically significant positive correlations between intra-abdominal fat, and weight and BMI for both vegetarian (r=0.32 and 0.34 respectively) and non-vegetarian (r= 0.48 and 0.63 respectively) middle aged women (P<0.01) also in biceps skinfold (r=0.43). In lipid profiles, negative correlations were observed between intra-abdominal fat and HDL-C both in vegetarian (r = -0.25) and non-vegetarian (r =0.17) middle aged women, though the differences were statistically non-significant.