Usefulness of different adiposity indexes for identification of metabolic disturbances in patients with obesity

Abstract

Context Despite the role of BMI as a classical obesity index, other indexes reflecting mainly abdominal obesity, usually outperform BMI in terms of metabolic complications prediction. Objective The aim of the present study is to compare the usefulness of different adiposity indexes for the identification of metabolic disturbances in patients with obesity. Methods In the study, we included 461 patients – group 1 with obesity (n = 182), group 2 with prediabetes (n = 193), and group 3 with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes (n = 86). Different anthropometric and adiposity indexes were calculated – WHR, WSR, VAI, ABSI, BRI, Hip index, WWI, LAP. Results VAI and LAP had the highest predictive value for the presence of carbohydrate disturbances. VAI also showed the strongest correlation with Framingham and SCORE compared to other adiposity indexes. Conclusions VAI and LAP are most useful for the identification of metabolic disturbances and cardiovascular risk in patients with obesity.