How do Different Indices of Obesity Correlate with Cardiometabolic Disease Risk Factors in Multiethnic Youths?

Abstract

To investigate the relationship between cardiometabolic disease risk factors (CDRFs) among ethnic minorities and anthropometric factors including body mass index z score, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) in Hispanic and non-Hispanic black youths originating primarily from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Clinical data of 167 young persons 2 to 19 years of age encountered in an outpatient pediatric endocrinology clinic were analyzed. The CDRFs included fasting insulin and glucose, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, cardiac C-reactive protein (CRP), and apolipoproteins. For both the non-Hispanic black and the Hispanic youths, WC was significantly correlated with SBP (r = 0.63; P<.001 and r = 0.50; P<.001, respectively), DBP (r = 0.61; P<.001 and r = 0.47; P<.001, respectively), and cardiac CRP (r = 0.76; P<.001 and r = 0.26; P = .026, respectively). Similarly, WHTR was significantly correlated with SBP, DBP, and cardiac CRP for the non-Hispanic black study subjects, whereas SBP (r = 0.22; P = .01), DBP (r = 0.34; P<.001), fasting insulin (r = 0.43; P<.001), HOMA-IR (r = 0.38; P<.001), apolipoprotein A-I (r = 0.30; P = .01), and CRP (r = 0.44; P<.001) were significantly correlated for the Hispanic group. For both groups, body mass index z score was not consistently correlated with CDRFs, and waist-to-hip ratio was not significantly correlated with any CDRFs, except for apolipoprotein B in non-Hispanic black youths. Our study shows that WC and WHTR may be useful anthropometric factors for better identification of ethnic minority youths at risk for adult-onset cardiometabolic disease.