Effect of age and gender on lipid profile in healthy rural population of Edo State, Nigeria

There are contradicting information on the influence of age and gender on blood lipid profile, some researchers believe the levels of total cholesterol and other components of lipid profile increase with age, others have proved significant negative correlation between total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and age. In this cross sectional study we looked at the effect of age and gender on lipid profile in a rural population. A total of one hundred and fifteen (115) healthy subjects between the ages of 21 and 80 years were recruited for this study.  Forty-four of the subjects were male and seventy-one females.  Serum lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein cholesterol and high density lipoprotein cholesterol) were estimated using standard laboratory techniques.  The mean value of triglyceride was significantly higher in males than females (p-value 0.02) but the mean values of total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, though higher in the male subjects than the females, the differences were not statistically significant (p-value 0.60 and 0.59).  The mean value of high density lipoprotein cholesterol was higher in the female than male subjects, although the difference was not statistically significant (p-value 0.25).  The highest percentage of subjects with dyslipidaemia was seen in the age group between 61-70 years in all the parameters assessed.  There was positive correlation between Age, total cholesterol, (0.273, p-value 0.003) triglycerides (0.29, p-value 0.002), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (0.107, p-value 0.25) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (0.07, p-value 0.48).  Lipid profile is affected by age and sex, dyslipidaemia is commonest in 61-70 years age group and post menopausal women.Keywords: Dyslipidaemia, Coronary heart disease, gender, postmenopausal