Baseline and cumulative Chinese visceral adiposity index and diabetic kidney disease: A prospective cohort study

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) makes up nearly half of all chronic kidney disease cases and is a major cause of mortality for people with diabetes. However, the study of the association of longitudinal Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) with DKD is still missing.

This prospective cohort study included 7874 diabetes patients from the Kailuan study. These participants had complete repeated waist circumference, body mass index, triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol measurements that formed the continuous CVAI records. DKD was defined by increased proteinuria or decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), preceded by diabetes. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to examine the associations between baseline and cumulative CVAI and the risk of DKD.

There is a positive association between the CVAI level, whether baseline or cumulative, and the incidence of DKD among diabetic patients (p for log-rank tests <0.001). Compared to low CVAI level, the high baseline CVAI level was positively associated with the risk of DKD (HR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.09-1.42), as well as the high cumulative CVAI level (HR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.29-2.04). In addition, the assumption of linearity for the positive associations between both baseline (P-nonlinear = 0.264, p for overall <0.001) and cumulative (P-nonlinear = 0.765, p for overall <0.001) CVAI with incident DKD was satisfied.

Higher baseline and cumulative CVAI are associated with a higher risk of DKD. This finding suggests the health benefits of low levels of CVAI and the importance of its regular surveillance among individuals with diabetes.