Name

Chin-Feng Yang

E - mail

t3873229@yahoo.com.tw

Thesis title

Obesity indexes in relation to the risk of type 2 diabetes and hypertension in the general population of Taiwan.

Publication

Sci Total Environ 2008; 395: 23-27

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of measures of central, general and the proposed new index to predict the risk of type 2 diabetes and/or hypertension for Taiwanese individuals.
Method: The data were obtained from the Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NASHIT) 1993-1996. We compared the predictive performance of five anthropometric indexes: one related to general obesity ─ body mass index (BMI); and four related to central obesity ─ waist circumference (WC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), waist-height ratio (WHtR), and the new obesity index (volume weight ratio, VWtR). We used the unconditional logistic regression and the area under (AUC) receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves to compare the performance of the indexes. Multivariate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were estimated from the unconditional logistic regression.
Results: Subjects in male with WHR value &#8805; 0.91 (OR = 5.23; 95% CI: 1.59 ~ 17.23) and 0.87 ~ 0.91 (OR = 4.20; 95% CI: 1.53 ~ 11.49) showed significantly increased risk of diabetes than subjects with WHR value < 0.87 (OR = 1.00) (test for trend: p = 0.01). Subjects in female with VWtR value &#8805; 1.38 (OR = 6.15; 95% CI: 1.52 ~ 24.96) showed significantly increased risk of diabetes than subjects with VWtR value < 1.22 (OR = 1.00) (test for trend: p = 0.009). Subjects in male with BMI value &#8805; 25.74 (OR = 2.36; 95% CI: 1.36 ~ 4.10) and 23.39 ~ 25.74 (OR = 1.72; 95% CI: 1.15 ~ 2.57) showed significantly increased risk of hypertension than subjects with BMI value < 23.39 (OR = 1.00) (test for trend: p = 0.003). Subjects in female with BMI value &#8805; 26.63 (OR = 2.82; 95% CI: 1.58 ~ 5.06) and 23.73 ~ 26.63 (OR = 2.15; 95% CI: 1.41 ~ 3.27) showed significantly increased risk of hypertension than subjects with BMI value < 23.73 (OR = 1.00) (test for trend: p < 0.001). WHR ( AUC = 0.74 for male), VWtR ( AUC = 0.84 for female) and BMI ( AUC = 0.73 for male and AUC = 080 for female) had the highest area under the ROC curve to predict diabetes and hypertension, respectively.
Conclusion: Our findings suggested that WHR and WHtR could be a better predictor of the risk of diabetes for male and female, respectively. BMI could be the better predictor of the risk of hypertension for both genders.