Prediction of high visceral adipose tissue for sex‐specific community residents in Taiwan

Abstract

Visceral adipose tissue accumulation is strongly linked with numerous chronic diseases; however, the accessibility for visceral adipose tissue measurement is limited. This study employed a cross‐sectional design to determine the optimal strongest predictor of high visceral adipose tissue in each sex and identified the optimal cutoff value thereof. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 94 men and 326 women aged ≥40 years in southern Taiwan. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to explore the optimal predictor of high visceral adipose tissue (defined as ≥135 cm2 for men and ≥100 cm2 for women) in each sex. The waist‐to‐hip ratio was the strongest predictor for men, with a cutoff value of 0.96 yielding the maximum sensitivity (94.29%) and specificity (93.22%). By contrast, body mass index was the strongest predictor for women, with a cutoff value of 25.45 kg/m2 yielding the maximum sensitivity (87.18%) and specificity (87.55%). The results may serve as a reference for health policy‐makers in screening for high visceral adipose tissue to identify individuals at high risk of developing chronic diseases for health promotion.