Prevalence of dyslipidemia in young adults.

Objectives: This study will help us to understand what lipid profile is normally present in our population, if abnormal, timely screening, education, and proper management can be done. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi, Pakistan. Period: November 2018-April 2019. Material & Methods: For the lipid profile, intravenous blood samples were collected in testing bottles after overnight fasting of 9-12 hours and sent to the institutional laboratory for testing. Dyslipidemia was defined as abnormal levels of any of the following components of the lipid profile. Total cholesterol of <200mg/dL was considered “desirable” while that of >240mg/dL was termed as hypercholesterolemia. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) was considered as “low” when it was <40mg/dL while Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was considered as “optimal” when it was less than 100 mg/dL. Triglycerides level >150 mg/dL was identified as hypertriglyceridemia. We defined isolated dyslipidemias as abnormal levels of any of these. This study was assessed and approved by the institutional review board of JPMC. Results: 112 participants of age <40 and >20 years were registered with 62 males and 50 females. Prevalence of dyslipidemia was found to be 75.9% with significantly high percentage in females (p < 0.05). 55.4% of the participants had desirable serum cholesterol and 42.9% had hypertriglyceridemia. 58% of these had HDL levels <40 mg/dL while 18.8% had high LDL levels. The mean serum cholesterol was significantly different in males and females (p=0.018). 7.1% of the total had isolated hypertriglyceridemia, 18.8% had isolated low HDL levels, and 46.4% had mixed hyperlipidemia, with significant differences between males and females in the former two. Conclusion: Dyslipidemia is a major risk factor for numerous systemic disorders and should be detected early in life for an effective management prior to the appearance of symptoms. This study gave a high prevalence of dyslipidemia in asymptomatic young adults, with females being more frequently affected than females.