Simple anthropometric indices in relation to cardiovascular risk factors in Chinese type 2 diabetic patients

To determine which is the best anthropometric index among body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHR) and waist to height ratio (WHtR) in type 2 diabetic patients, we examined the relationship between these indices and cardiovascular risk factors using partial correlation analysis, chi-square test, logistic regression analysis and Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves. Partial correlation analysis showed that among the 4 obesity indices, WHtR had the highest r values for all the cardiovascular risk factors in both sexes, followed by WC. Chi-square analysis which revealed that an increased WHtR was more strongly associated with hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia (high TG) and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) than the other indices. Logistic regression analysis showed that, after controlling for age, the hypertension, high TG and low HDL-C odds ratios of WHtR > or = 0.5 were 2.56 (95% CI: 1.24, 5.29), 2.87 (95% CI: 1.43, 5.78), 2.59 (95% CI: 1.03, 6.59) in men and 3.75 (95% CI: 1.75, 8.05), 3.21 (95% CI: 1.52, 6.79), 3.62 (95% CI: 1.43, 9.21) in women, respectively. In ROC analysis, the areas under curve of WHtR were the largest for at least one risk factor in both men and women. These results indicated that WHtR had a higher correlation with cardiovascular risk factors than WC, WHR or BMI in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. We proposed the measurement of WHtR as a screening tool for cardiovascular risk factors in this population.