The purpose of this study was to quantify the respective contributions of intra-abdominal adiposity and cardiorespiratory fitness to the variation of inflammatory markers in healthy men (n=120) and women (n=152) who participated in the Québec Family Study. Intra-abdominal adipose tissue was positively associated with plasma levels of C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 and negatively associated with plasma adiponectin concentrations after adjustment for cardiorespiratory fitness. The prevalence of a high inflammation score in participants with high intra-abdominal adipose tissue was 60.0% (high fitness) and 61.7% (low fitness) compared to 23.9% (high fitness) and 28.0% (low fitness) among participants with low levels of intra-abdominal adipose tissue. After adjustment for intra-abdominal adipose tissue, fitness was not associated with inflammation markers in women and only with adiponectin levels in men. These results suggest that the association between poor cardiorespiratory fitness and inflammation may be attributable to increased levels of intra-abdominal adiposity often found among individuals with poor cardiorespiratory fitness.
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