Background: The Body Mass Index (BMI) has long been used as an anthropometric measurement. Waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) have been proposed as alternatives to BMI. Recently, two new anthropometric indices, the A Body Shape Index (ABSI) and Body Roundness Index (BRI) have been developed as possible improved alternatives to BMI and WC. The main research aim is to assess the capacity of the ABSI and BRI to identify subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM) and the secondary aim is to determine whether ABSI and/or BRI is superior to the traditional body indices (BMI, WC, and WHtR).
Methods and results: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural areas of northeast China from January 2012 to August 2013, and the final analysis included data obtained form 5253 men and 6092 women. 1182 participants (10.4 %) suffered from DM. Spearman rank test showed that BRI and WHtR showed the highest Spearman correlation coefficient for DM whereas ABSI showed the lowest. The prevalence of DM increased across quartiles for ABSI, BMI, BRI, WC and WHtR. A multivariate logistic regression analysis of the presence of DM for the highest quartile vs. the lowest quartile of each anthropometric measure, showed that the WHtR was the best predictor of DM (OR: 2.40, 95 % CI: 1.42-3.39 in men; OR: 2.67, 95 % CI: 1.60-3.74 in women, both P < 0.001), and the ABSI was the poorest predictor of DM (OR: 1.51, 95 % CI: 1.05-1.97 in men; OR: 1.55, 95 % CI: 1.07-2.04 in women, both P < 0.05). ABSI showed the lowest AUCs (AUC: 0.61, 95 % CI: 0.58-0.63 for men; AUC: 0.61, 95 % CI: 0.59-0.63 for women) for DM in both sexes, while BRI (AUC: 0.66, 95 % CI: 0.63-0.68 for men; AUC: 0.67, 95 % CI: 0.65-0.69 for women) had high AUCs for DM that equaled those of WHtR.
Conclusions: Our results showed neither ABSI nor BRI were superior to BMI, WC, or WHtR for predicting the presence of DM. ABSI showed the weakest predictive ability, while BRI showed potential for use as an alternative obesity measure in assessment of DM.