Association between a body shape index and abdominal aortic calcification in the general population: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013-2014

Abstract

Background: The relationship between a body shape index (ABSI) and abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) is still unclear, so we tried to prove the relationship between ABSI and AAC in the general population free from cardiovascular disease. Methods: The present study included 3140 participants aged 40-80 years from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Logistic regression analysis and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were used to tested the association between ABSI and AAC. Results: Participants with higher ABSI showed significantly higher proportion of AAC. Participants with higher ABSI had an increased risk of developing AAC in the crude model (ABSI as a continuous variable: OR = 2.485, 95% CI: 2.099-2.942, P < 0.001; as a categorical variable: OR = 2.132, 95% CI: 1.826-2.489, P < 0.001), while higher ABSI remained to be an independent risk predictor of AAC with the increase of confounding factors (all adjusted P < 0.05). Further subgroup analyses showed that higher ABSI (regarding lower ABSI as reference) was consistently positively correlated with AAC in eleven subgroups, including sex, age, smoking history, hypertension, diabetes, sleep disorder, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P for interaction > 0.05). However, in the osteoporosis and hemoglobin A1c subgroups, the correlation was no longer synchronized (P for interaction < 0.05). The ROC curves analysis showed that the discriminant ability of ABSI was significantly higher than that of other models. Conclusions: Independent of the related confounding factors, higher ABSI was significantly associated with higher prevalent AAC in the general population free from cardiovascular disease.