Simple anthropometric indicators compared with DXA-assessed visceral adiposity for screening brown adipose tissue...

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) activation increases energy expenditure and is associated with reduced body adiposity and improved cardiometabolic health. Therefore, we hypothesized that anthropometric parameters, particularly those reflecting central adiposity, could serve as indirect and straightforward markers for screening BAT activity. We evaluated the performance of anthropometric indicators, such as body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), neck circumference (NC), sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), neck-to-height ratio (NHtR), SAD-to-height ratio (SADHtR) and body roundness index (BRI), for screening of BAT activity (assessed by infrared thermography) in 122 adult women exposed to cold (for 2 h in an 18°C room), considering visceral adipose tissue (VAT) measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as the harmful indicator of abdominal adiposity. Using multiple linear regression adjusted for age and physical activity level, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, we found that BMI, SAD, WC, and WHtR were the best indirect screeners of BAT activity, performing as well as VAT (p > 0.05 for all). These indicators may serve as practical proxies of BAT activity, potentially aiding in the development of strategies for metabolic disease intervention and prevention.