The relationship between perceived sense of control and visceral adipose tissue - the North Texas Healthy Heart Study

This cross-sectional study recruited 571 subjects (45 years and older) who were asymptomatic of CHD from Fort Worth, Texas from 2006 to 2008. Subjects completed a questionnaire, body measurements, a multi-slice computed tomography scan to assess for visceral adipose tissue (VAT) centered at the L4L5 spinal interspace, and serum chemistries. The natural log of L4L5 VAT (lnVAT) was used in all analyses to achieve normality of the data with final analyses including 506 participants. Linear regression was used to estimate unadjusted and adjusted beta-coefficients and standard errors for the association between sense of control and lnVAT.A total of 506 participants were used in the data after adjusting for normality of the data. An increase in sense of control was associated with a decrease in lnVAT in the unadjusted (p < 0.001) and adjusted (p = 0.03) models. Other factors significantly associated with lnVAT in the adjusted model include age, BMI, male gender, non-Hispanic African American, and diet.Sense of control remained as an independent factor associated with visceral adiposity despite adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, including BMI. Future studies should focus on establishing a causal relationship between sense of control and visceral adiposity.The burden of excessive weight and its association with adverse health outcomes has been extensively examined by researchers over the years. There has been an increasing amount of interest on the accumulation of visceral adipose tissue (VAT), which is a form of body fat that surrounds various organs of the body. This interest has arisen since VAT is more metabolically active compared to other types of adipose tissue and is known to impact many metabolic abnormalities that have been associated with excessive weight gain [1-10]. Moreover, VAT has been associated with hypertension, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia [11]. Major factors affecting VAT include sex-hormone imbalance, aging, excessive intake