Anthropometric measurements as predictive indicators of metabolic risk in a Mexican population

Introduction: Currently, it is considered that the body fat accumulation at central level is associated with the presence of hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension and diabetes. The body mass index (BMI) has been used to identify obesity in the general population, but can not detect the distribution of body fat, so that can be used other anthropometric measures to assess adiposity and determine their relationship with the presence of metabolic disorders that present people with excess weight. Objective: To evaluate anthropometric measurements such as waist-hip ratio (WHR), BMI and waist circumference (WC) as predictive indicators of metabolic risk factors in Mexican adults. Methods:A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in a total of 490 subjects (27-46 years), grouped by gender. All participants were determined anthropometric measurements and biochemical parameters. ROC curves of anthropometric parameters were set to identify the best predictive indicator of metabolic risk. Results: The metabolic risk factor most prevalent after abdominal obesity in women was hypertriglyceridemia, followed by hyperglycemia, hypercholesterolemia and high blood pressure, which are found most often in men than in women, although the presence of abdominal obesity was found most frequently in women (73.9% vs.37.3%). WC was the best predictive indicator to have one or more metabolic risk factors [area under the curve AUC = 0.85 (95% CI, 0.78 to 0.92)], followed by the BMI [AUC = 0.79 (95% CI, 0.72 to 0.88)], and finally the WHC [AUC = 0.63 (95% CI, 0.52 to 0.74)]. Also shows that abdominal obesity duplicate the risk of metabolic syndrome. Conclusion: Waist circumference is a better indicator of metabolic risk in both genders compared with BMI and the WHC.