Cardiovascular disease prevalence, associated risk factors, and plasma adiponectin levels among Filipino American women.

OBJECTIVES: This cross-sectional study was designed to examine the association between adiponectin and cardiovascular disease (CVD) among an understudied ethnic group of Filipino American women. METHODS: We recruited 266 Filipino women aged 40-86 years from the University of California, San Diego Filipino Women's Health Study (1995-1999). Plasma adiponectin was extracted from archive blood samples and measured by radioimmunoassay. CVD was defined as coronary heart disease, angina, myocardial infarction, or stroke by history, electrocardiogram (Minnesota coding), or Rose questionnaire. RESULTS: CVD prevalence among Filipinas was 20.7% (n=55), of which 85.5% were newly diagnosed. Filipinas with versus without CVD had more antihypertensive medication use (44.4% vs 26.7%), more parental history of myocardial infarction (38.2% vs 21.8%), higher proinsulin levels (13.2 vs 11.0 pmol/L), lower adiponectin levels (5.09 vs 6.15 microg/mL), and higher prevalences of the metabolic syndrome (34.6% vs 28.0%) and microalbuminuria (24.0% vs 12.2%). Adiponectin (adjusted OR .46, 95% CI .23-.89, P=.021) was independently associated with CVD in multivariate analysis that adjusted for age, exercise, family history, diabetes, hypertension, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and microalbuminuria. CONCLUSIONS: Independent of known risk factors, adiponectin was associated with CVD among Filipinas. This finding suggests that adiponectin may be a useful CVD indicator among this ethnic population.