Recent evidence indicates that measurement of
apoproteins may enhance evaluation of
coronary heart disease risk. The purpose of the present study was to identify factors associated with interindividual variation in
apoproteins (
apo) A-I, A-II, and B and
lipoprotein lipid levels in 541 healthy premenopausal women, a random sample ages 42 to 50 taken from driver's license lists. The results of multivariate analyses that included alcohol intake,
obesity, smoking, exercise, and age as predictor variables showed alcohol consumption to be strongly, positively related to
apo A-I and A-II and smoking and
obesity to have modest lowering effects on
apo A-I. Concentration of the
high density lipoprotein subfraction, HDL2c, however, was highly negatively related to body mass index, with alcohol intake and smoking each contributing about 5% to the variation. HDL3c had a similar relationship to
obesity, alcohol, and smoking, but the magnitude of effect was much smaller than that for HDL2c. Thus, the concentration of
cholesterol relative to
protein found in HDL, particularly HDL2, was lower in
overweight women and higher in women who reported alcohol intake. About 10% of variation in
low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) was explained jointly by smoking,
obesity, and alcohol intake compared with 15% of variation in
apo B associated primarily with
obesity (8%) and, to a lesser extent, with age and smoking. Physical activity was not independently associated with any of the
lipoprotein lipid or
apoprotein measures. In sum, results show that obese women exhibited reduced HDLc per mole of
protein and that alcohol intake was linked to increased HDL particle number.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)