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Association Between Blood Heavy Metal Concentrations and Dyslipidemia in the Elderly

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Abstract

Our objective was to evaluate the relationship of blood metal levels including strontium, cadmium, lead, vanadium, aluminum, cobalt, and manganese with dyslipidemia in the elderly Chinese population. In this study, stratified cluster sampling was adopted in the elderly in two communities of Lu’an City from June to September 2016, and 1013 participants were finally included. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to measure the metals’ concentrations in whole blood. After multivariable adjustment, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval [CI]) of dyslipidemia associated with the highest quartile of metal concentrations were 1.32 (0.89 ~ 1.96), 1.28 (0.83 ~ 1.97), 1.86 (1.23 ~ 2.80), 0.80 (0.55 ~ 1.16), 0.76 (0.51 ~ 1.13), 0.76 (0.53 ~ 1.11), and 1.14 (0.78 ~ 1.67) for strontium, cadmium, lead, vanadium, aluminum, cobalt, and manganese, respectively, compared with the lowest quartile. After reducing the dimensionality of metal elements by principal component analysis, we found that the combined exposure of aluminum, cobalt, and vanadium was the protective factor of non-dyslipidemia, while the combined exposure of cadmium, strontium, and lead was the risk factor of dyslipidemia.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all people who contributed to this study, including the Anhui Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Lu’an Jin’an Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Lu’an Yuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengbei Township Health Center, and Beishi Community Health Service Center, an experimental center for public health, Anhui Medical University.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81102125). The sponsor was involved in the design, data collection, and analysis of the study and is the corresponding author of this article.

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Author notes

  1. Xingmeng Zhu and Yong Fan participated in the data analysis and revised the manuscript. Yong Fan, Ling Gu, Qi Tao, Rui Huang, Kaiyong Liu, Guimei Chen, Ying Ma, Hongjuan Cao, Kaichun Li, Fangbiao Tao participated in epidemiological surveys, sample collection, and data entry. Xingmeng Zhu, Jie Sheng and Yong Fan performed the experiments. Sufang Wang participated in the design and conducted the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript..

    Xingmeng Zhu and Yong Fan contributed equally to this work. Wang Sufang is the corresponding author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, People’s Republic of China

    Xingmeng Zhu, Jie Sheng, Ling Gu, Qi Tao, Rui Huang, Kaiyong Liu, Linsheng Yang, Fangbiao Tao & Sufang Wang

  2. Anhui Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hefei, People’s Republic of China

    Yong Fan

  3. School of Health Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, People’s Republic of China

    Guimei Chen & Fangbiao Tao

  4. Lu’an Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Lu’an, People’s Republic of China

    Hongjuan Cao & Kaichun Li

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Contributions

Xingmeng Zhu and Yong Fan participated in the data analysis and drew up the manuscript. Yong Fan, Ling Gu, Qi Tao, Rui Huang, Kaiyong Liu, Guimei Chen, Linsheng Yang, Hongjuan Cao, Kaichun Li, and Fangbiao Tao participated in the epidemiological surveys, sample collection, and data entry. Xingmeng Zhu, Jie Sheng, and Yong Fan performed the experiments. Sufang Wang participated in the design and conducted the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sufang Wang.

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Zhu, X., Fan, Y., Sheng, J. et al. Association Between Blood Heavy Metal Concentrations and Dyslipidemia in the Elderly. Biol Trace Elem Res 199, 1280–1290 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-020-02270-0

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