Waist circumference, visceral abdominal fat thickness and three components of metabolic syndrome

The relationships between the waist circumference (WC), visceral adipose tissue (VAT) thickness and three components of metabolic syndrome (MetS) were explored to verify which of the obesity indices might be superior.

A cross-sectional study was conducted of 1256 subjects (840 males and 416 females) aged 26-89 years, who were individuals undergoing intensive health checkup. The three components of MetS examined were high blood pressure, glucose intolerance and dyslipidemia. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis were used for the analyses.

The mean values of the WC and VAT thickness were significantly higher in the subject group positive for each of the metabolic syndrome components than in the subject group that was negative for all the components (p<0.001). ROC curve analysis showed that the WC showed an advantage over the VAT thickness only for predicting high blood pressure in men. Logistic regression analysis revealed increase of the odds ratios of the WC for glucose intolerance (p<0.001), high blood pressure (p<0.001) and dyslipidemia (p<0.01) in men. In contrast, the odds ratio of the VAT thickness was significantly increased only for dyslipidemia (p<0.01) in men. In women, the odds ratios of the WC for glucose intolerance (p<0.01) and dyslipidemia (p<0.001) were significantly increased, and odds ratio of the VAT thickness for high blood pressure (p<0.01) was significantly increased.

This survey presented an advantage of WC over VAT thickness as an obesity index for identifying all the three components of metabolic syndrome, although sex differences in the study outcomes were found.