The Best Obesity Indicators for Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

Background: Recent studies have suggested that waist to height ratio (WHtR) is the better indicator to predict cardiovascular risk than body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). The aim of the study is to identify the best anthropometric index among obesity indicators that predicts metabolic syndrome (MS) in different gender and age groups.

Methods: This study is a cross-sectional survey of 6,160 subjects aged 19 years (yr) and over who participated in the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (KNHANES IV) between January 2008 and December 2008. To compare predictive power of anthropometric indices for MS, the areas under the receiver-operating characteristics curves (AUCs) of BMI, WC and WHtR were calculated.

Results: In entire age population, AUC of WHtR was the largest among obesity indicators to predict MS in both genders. However after adjustment for age, there was no significant difference among three obesity indicators in both men and women. When compared within three different age groups, there was no significant difference among three obesity indices for men and young aged women (19-39yr). AUC of WHtR and WC were similar with each other, but greater than AUC of BMI for middle-aged (40-60yr) and elderly (> 60yr) women.

Conclusion: There is no superiority among obesity indicators to predict MS in men and young women. BMI has less predicting power for MS in middle-aged and elderly women than WC and WHtR.