Association between anthropometric indicators of adiposity and hypertension in a Brazilian population: Baependi Heart Study

Abstract

BackgroundRecently, some studies have evaluated the role of adiposity measures in the prediction of hypertension risk, but the results are conflicting. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare which of the four indicators of adiposity (waist circumference–WC, body mass index–BMI, body adiposity index–BAI, and visceral adiposity index–VAI) were better associated with hypertension in a Brazilian population.Methods and findingsFor this study, were selected 1627 individuals (both genders, and aged over 18 years) resident in the municipality of Baependi, a city located in the Southeast of Brazil. WC, BMI, BAI and VAI were determined according to a standard protocol. Hypertension was defined as mean systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg, and/or antihypertensive drug use. The indicators of adiposity WC, BMI, BAI, and VAI were higher in hypertensive when compared to non-hypertensive individuals. In addition, WC and BMI were most strongly associated with hypertension in men and women, respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) of WC was significantly higher than VAI in men. In women, both AUC of BMI and WC showed higher discriminatory power to predict hypertension than BAI and VAI.ConclusionsThe indicators of adiposity WC and BMI were better associated with hypertension than BAI and VAI, in both genders, and it could be a useful tools for the screening of hypertensive patients.

Association of Body Composition and Anthropometric Measurement with Hypertension among Workers in Universitas Ahmad Dahlan

“…We found that age, sex, work duration, WHtR, and total body fat were not related to hypertension. These results were different with other research that found that higher BMI, WHR and total body fat had a strong association with hypertension in mining workers (6,17). The difference of the findings because in our study we are different condition in workers, characteristics of body composition, or there were other better indicator such as the research of Oh et al (18) in Korea that found other indicators that could predict hypertension and other metabolic risk factors better in normal waist circumference called visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio (VSR).…”

“…Based on weighing, we can assess body mass index which was one of the risk factors of hypertension. However, there was another anthropometric measurement who were closely related to hypertension, such as the measurements of waist circumference and waist ho height ratio (WHtR) (6)(7)(8). Limitation of anthropometric measurement was it can't distinguish between weight of fat mass and fat-free mass in overall body weight.…”

The Visceral Adipose Index in Relation to Incidence of Hypertension in Chinese Adults: China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS)

“…The associations of overweight/obesity and some other adiposity indicators with the risk of hypertension were previously reported in substantial cross-sectional and time-series studies [8][9][10][11], and thus losing weight, as one of the non-pharmacological strategies, is commonly recommended to lower BP [3]. Several simple and low-cost adiposity indicators were developed including general adiposity index (body mass index (BMI) and height-adjusted body weight) and central adiposity indicators such as waist circumference (WC), hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, body adiposity index (BAI), and visceral adiposity index (VAI) [7,11,12]. Though BMI and WC are commonly measured in current research, BMI in some cases is not a suitable predictor for the percentage of body adipose [13] and WC is unable to distinguish visceral from subcutaneous fat [14].…”

“…Janghorbani et al [36] assessed the incidence of hypertension in 1375 non-diabetic and non-hypertensive participants over a 7-year follow-up and reported that greater VAI scores weakly predicted hypertension whereas the hypertriglyceridemic waist was a stronger predictor. Similarly, another study with 1627 individuals in Brazil reported that the indicators of adiposity such as WC and BMI were better associated with hypertension when compared with BAI and VAI [11]. However, WC and BMI in some cases are not suitable predictors of the percentage of body adipose [13], and unable to distinguish between visceral and subcutaneous fat [14].…”

“…Several epidemiological studies explored the association between VAI scores and risk of hypertension or CVDs but with inconsistent conclusions on the predictive ability of the VAI [10,11,15,25,26,36]. Though the positive association between the VAI scores and the risk of hypertension were demonstrated in different populations, there are still considerable studies that reached differing conclusions.…”