Association Between Visceral Obesity Index and Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Area of Science:

• Endocrinology and Metabolism
• Public Health
• Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

• The association between visceral obesity index (VAI) and diabetes mellitus remains a subject of ongoing research and debate.
• The utility of VAI in the early prediction of diabetes requires further clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the relationship between elevated VAI and diabetes.
• To evaluate the early predictive value of VAI for diabetes risk.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive meta-analysis was conducted, searching PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and Web of Science databases.
• Data from 53 studies involving 595,946 participants were analyzed after adjusting for confounding factors.
• Odds ratios for VAI and diabetes, along with sensitivity and specificity for early prediction, were extracted.

Main Results:

• A high VAI significantly increases the risk of diabetes mellitus in both males (OR = 2.83) and females (OR = 3.32).
• The early predictive accuracy of VAI for diabetes showed moderate performance, with AUC values of 0.64 for males and 0.67 for females.
• Sensitivity and specificity for VAI in predicting diabetes were reported for both genders.

Conclusions:

• Visceral obesity index (VAI) is established as an independent predictor for diabetes risk.
• The current predictive accuracy of VAI for diabetes is limited.
• Future research should explore combining VAI with other indicators to improve early diabetes risk prediction accuracy.