Body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio for prediction of multiple metabolic risk factors in Chinese elderly population

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the predictive ability of five obesity indices, including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), waist-to-hip ratio (WHpR) and body adiposity index (BAI), to predict multiple non-adipose metabolic risk factors, including elevated blood pressure (BP), elevated fasting plasma glucose (FPG), elevated triglyceride (TG), reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), elevated serum uric acid (SUA) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), in an elderly Chinese population. A total of 5685 elderly Chinese subjects (≥60 years) were recruited into our community-based cross-sectional study. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses were used to compare the predictive ability as well as determine the optimal cut-off values of the obesity indices for multiple metabolic risk factors. According to the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), BMI, WC and WHtR were able to similarly predict high metabolic risk in males (0.698 vs. 0.691 vs. 0.688), while in females, BMI and WC were able to similarly predict high metabolic risk (0.676 vs. 0.669). The optimal cut-off values of BMI, WC and WHtR in males were, respectively, 24.12 kg/m², 83.5 cm and 0.51, while in females, the values were 23.53 kg/m² and 77.5 cm.

Figure 1

ROC curves of obesity indices to predict high metabolic risk population. Male (left) and female (right).