Assessing the prevalence of obesity in a Russian adult population by six indices and their associations with hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolaemia

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Kholmatova, Kamila Kahramonzhonovna, Krettek, Alexandra, Dvoryashina, Irina V., Malyutina, Sofia, Kudryavtsev, Alexander V
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2024
• Subjects: Circumpolar Health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/35163; https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2024.2386783

The anthropometric index that best predicts cardiometabolic risk remains inconclusive. This study therefore assessed the prevalence of obesity using six indices and compared their associations with obesity-related cardiometabolic disorders. We determined obesity prevalence according to body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), body fat percentage and fat mass index (FMI) using data from the Know Your Heart study (n = 4495, 35–69 years). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) provided predictive values of each index for detecting the presence of hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia and diabetes. Age-standardised obesity prevalence significantly varied according to anthropometric index: from 17.2% (FMI) to 75.8% (WHtR) among men and from 23.6% (FMI) to 65.0% (WHtR) among women. WHtR had the strongest association with hypertension (AUC = 0.784; p < 0.001) and with a combination of disorders (AUC = 0.779; p < 0.001) in women. In women, WHtR also had the largest AUCs for hypercholesterolaemia, in men – for hypertension, diabetes and a combination of disorders, although not all the differences from other obesity indices were significant. WHtR exhibited the closest association between hypertension and a combination of disorders in women and was non-inferior compared to other indices in men.