Prevalence of dyslipidemia in the Iraqi adult population

OBJECTIVE: To establish the prevalence of dyslipidemia in the Iraqi adult population in Mosul, Iraq, according to the different recommended criteria.

METHODS: The study was carried out from October 2003 to April 2004, with 871 apparently healthy volunteers (413 males, 458 females) aged 20-70 year ([mean ± SD] 41.2 ± 13.8 year). Fasting blood specimens were collected from all subjects for measurement of serum lipid profile including triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and ratios of cholesterol such as TC:HDL-C, LDL-C:HDL-C, and TG:HDL-C. Classification was carried out according to the different cut-off levels as recommended by the 2001 American National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) III using thresholds of TG&#8805;150 mg/dl (2.0 mmol/L), LDL-C&#8805;100 mg/dl (2.6 mmol/L), HDL-C<40 mg/dl (1.04 mmol/L), and non-HDL-C&#8805;130 mg/dl (3.37 mmol/L). The criteria of the 1998 British Hyperlipidemia Association (BHA) were also followed using thresholds of TG&#8805;180 mg/dl (2.4 mmol/L), TC&#8805;194 mg/dl (5.0 mmol/L), LDL-C&#8805;116 mg/dl (3.0 mmol/L), HDL-C&#8804;45 mg/dl (1.15 mmol/L), TC:HDL-C&#8805;5.0, HDL-C:DL-C&#8805;2.5, and TG:HDL-C&#8805;3.0.

RESULTS: Based on the American NCEP III criteria, the dyslipidemic states were noted with high TG (41.6%), high LDL-C (57.8%), low HDL-C (49.9%), and high non-HDL-C (56.8%) from the subjects. Based on the BHA criteria, high TG (24.5%), high TC (32.7%), high LDL-C (37.8%), high TC:HDL-C (30.9%), high LDL-C HDL-C (55.7%), and high TG:HDL-C (58.3%) were noted.

CONCLUSION: Dyslipidemia is common in the Iraqi population, and this was identified at different recommendation criteria.