Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) of anthropometric parameters and physical activities with blood lipids

BACKGROUND: Anthropometric parameters and physical activities are significant factors influencing lipid levels, but few research have demonstrated the effect of amount of activities on lipid levels. Our research analyzed and explored this relationships. METHODS: A multi-stage stratified sampling method was used to select the investigation subjects in Hubei, China. A questionnaire survey, physical measurements and biochemistry tests (including total cholesterol, high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triacylglycerol) were conducted using CCA analysis. RESULTS: The first canonical correlation of the four biochemistry tests and anthropometric parameters with physical activities was 0.44 (P < 0.0001). Grouping by sex and areas, the first canonical correlation were 0.51 (p < 0.0001), 0.43 (p < 0.0001), 0.39 (p < 0.0001) and 0.45 (p < 0.0001). By CCA, blood lipids were negatively correlated with occupation activity, and positively associated with waistline, body mass index (BMI), sleep time, static behavior, and age. CONCLUSIONS: CCA could be an efficient method to find out the most influential factors on exposure and outcome variables. Blood lipid had significant but moderate association with physical activities and anthropometric parameters. Waistline, BMI and occupation activity function as major influences on lipids. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Identifying number: 2,013,001. Date of trial registry: 8st Oct 2012. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12944-017-0630-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.