Usefulness of different adiposity indexes for identification of metabolic disturbances in patients with obesity

Abstract

Context

Despite the role of BMI as a classical obesity index, other indexes reflecting mainly abdominal obesity, usually outperform BMI in terms of metabolic complications prediction.

Objective

The aim of the present study is to compare the usefulness of different adiposity indexes for the identification of metabolic disturbances in patients with obesity.

Methods

In the study, we included 461 patients – group 1 with obesity (n = 182), group 2 with prediabetes (n = 193), and group 3 with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (n = 86). Different anthropometric and adiposity indexes were calculated – WHR, WSR, VAI, ABSI, BRI, Hip index, WWI, LAP.

Results

VAI and LAP had the highest predictive value for the presence of carbohydrate disturbances. VAI also showed the strongest correlation with Framingham and SCORE compared to other adiposity indexes.

Conclusions

VAI and LAP are most useful for the identification of metabolic disturbances and cardiovascular risk in patients with obesity.

Keywords:

• Obesity
• insulin resistance
• anthropometric indices
• VAI

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, AG. The data are not publicly available due to restrictions, for example, their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants].