Effect of Physical Activity Type on Serum Remnant Cholesterol Level in Korean Adults: A Nationwide Population-Based Study.

Introduction: Remnant cholesterol (RC) is an important contributor to cardiovascular disease development. We aimed to investigate the effect of physical activity (PA) type on serum RC levels in Korean adults.

Methods: We used data from the 2016-2021 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and included 32,877 adults. Serum RC was calculated by subtracting the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels from the total cholesterol level. Hyper-remnant cholesterolemia was defined as a serum RC level of ≥30 mg/dL. PA was classified into aerobic, resistance, and walking exercises, which involved practicing 150 min of moderate, 75 min of high-intensity PA, or a combination of the 2, per week; doing resistance exercise more than 2 days per week; walking more than 150 min per week, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between serum RC and PA type.

Results: Among those aged <65 years, the odds ratio (OR) of hyper-remnant cholesterolemia was 1.23 times higher in the group that did not perform resistance exercise than in the group that performed more than 2 resistance exercises per week (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.12-1.36, p < 0.0001). Among those aged ≥65 years, the OR of hyper-remnant cholesterolemia was 1.31 times higher in the group that did not practice walking exercise than in the group that walked for more than 150 min per week (95% CI: 1.11-1.55, p < 0.01).

Conclusion: This study revealed that resistance exercise in those aged <65 years and walking exercise in those aged ≥65 years were significantly associated with low RC levels in Korean adults.