Research Article

The Impact of Abdominal Obesity Status on Cardiovascular Response to the Mediterranean Diet

Table 3

Characteristics of subjects before the 4-week controlled Mediterranean diet intervention1.

VariablesNonabdominally obese individuals
( )
Abdominally obese individuals
( )
MeanSDMeanSD

Men ( , (%))22 (71.0)15 (39.5)*
Age (years) 42.66.641.47.9
Body weight (kg)78.410.591.1*17.2
BMI (kg/m2)226.61.631.6*4.6
Waist circumference (cm)
  Total92.86.2105.3*10.9
  Men96.04.3112.3*10.0
  Women85.11.5100.8*9.0
TG (mmol/L)21.640.881.621.08
Total cholesterol (mmol/L) 5.610.715.380.83
LDL-C (mmol/L) 3.660.593.450.66
HDL-C (mmol/L)1.200.341.180.27
Apo B (g/L)21.110.221.080.17
Apo A-1 (g/L) 1.370.201.360.17
Apo A-2 (g/L)0.360.060.340.04
Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)112.113.8114.011.1
Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)75.58.978.4*10.0
Fasting glucose (mmol/L)5.680.355.89*0.60
2 h glucose (mmol/L)6.081.707.14 2.38
Fasting insulin (pmol/L)264.530.4113.4*81.8
2 h insulin (pmol/L)2365.4326.6621.4*604.1
HOMA index2,30.09270.11480.0757*0.1505

BMI: body mass index; TG: triglycerides; LDL-C: low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol; HDL-C: high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol; Apo: apolipoprotein; HOMA index: homeostasis model assessment index.
1Data represent characteristics of participants after the run-in period.
Men and women with a waist circumference of, respectively, >102 cm and >88 cm were considered as having abdominal obesity. Analyses were performed after adjustment for sex.
Mean values were significantly different between groups before the controlled Mediterranean diet by the General Linear Model procedure; * .
2Analysis was performed on transformed values.
3Calculated as (1/[fasting glucose (mmol/L) × fasting insulin (pmol/L)/22.5]) for measuring insulin sensitivity.