Kyong Park, Ph.D, MPH: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association between carbohydrate intake and the risk of hypertriglyceridemia and hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia among middle-aged and older adults with carbohydrate-based diet in Korea.
Methods: Data from two community-based cohort studies, the Korean Association Resource (KARE) study and the Health Examinees (HEXA) study, were used. Carbohydrate intake was assessed using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire and blood lipid data were collected from participants after at least eight hours of fasting. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to compute hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: The results from the study revealed that individuals with the higher carbohydrate intake had a significantly higher risk for hypertriglyceridemia and hypo-HDL-cholesterolemia compared to those with the lower carbohydrate intake, in both the cohort-specific results and the pooled results. Additionally, the study found that the risk for hypertriglyceridemia increased linearly with increasing carbohydrate intake in the KARE study, but a nonlinear relationship was observed in HEXA, where the risk for hypertriglyceridemia increased drastically after a carbohydrate intake of approximately 70%.
Conclusions: The study concludes that there is a significant positive association between carbohydrate intake and the risk of blood lipid dysregulation disorders.
Funding Sources: This research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant.
