Chinese Visceral Adiposity Index Outperforms Traditional Anthropometric Indices in Predicting Cardiovascular Disease...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology and Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a leading cause of mortality globally.
• Accurate risk prediction tools are crucial for early intervention and prevention strategies.
• Traditional anthropometric indices have limitations in assessing visceral adiposity and CVD risk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the association of the Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) with incident CVD in a Chinese population.
• To compare the predictive performance of CVAI against traditional anthropometric indices (BMI, WC, WHR, WHtR).

Main Methods:

• Prospective cohort study involving 35,551 Chinese adults without prior CVD history.
• Cox proportional hazard models and restricted cubic splines analyzed associations between indices and CVD, CHD, and stroke risk.
• Subgroup analyses examined associations across age, sex, hypertension, and diabetes groups.
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis assessed predictive performance using AUROC, NRI, and IDI.

Main Results:

• A 1-SD increase in CVAI was associated with the highest elevated risk for incident CVD, CHD, and stroke after confounder adjustment.
• CVAI demonstrated significantly higher predictive performance (AUC) for CVD than BMI and WC in the general population.
• CVAI also showed superior prediction compared to WHR in females.

Conclusions:

• CVAI is more strongly associated with incident CVD risk than traditional anthropometric indices in the Chinese population.
• CVAI shows significant potential as a superior predictor of CVD events, particularly in females.
• The findings support the utility of CVAI in CVD risk stratification and public health initiatives.