A study of serum cholesterol level in young adults and its relation to body mass index and waist-circumference.

The present study was carried out to determine the serum total cholesterol (TC) level in young adults of Dibrugarh town of Assam and to find the association of serum cholesterol level with body mass index (BMI) and waist-circumference (WC). A cross-sectional study was done among 150 healthy young adults aged 20-30 years. TC was estimated by the enzymatic method. Hypercholesterolemia was defined as TC > 200 mg/dl. Cases were classified into different categories of BMI and WC according to the recommendations of WHO/IASO/IOTF (2000). The range of TC level in the study group was found to be (146-212) mg/dl. Mean cholesterol level in males and females were 169.5±3.6 and 172.3±15.09 mg/dl respectively. 7% of the cases had hypercholesterolemia. TC was significantly correlated with BMI (r=0.90, p<0.001) and WC (r=0.73, p<0.001 in males and r=0.86, p<0.001 in females). We conclude that young adults ≥20 years of age and especially who are overweight should be advised routine cholesterol testing so that preventive measures can be adopted to avoid hypercholesterolemia and it's complications in future life.