Background: Anthropometric measurements and indexes that assess excess of adiposity are associated with cardiovascular risk factors, and predict diabetes mellitus.
Methods: This cross-sectional study reported the performance of adiposity indexes to detect or turn diabetes unlikely in patients with hypertension. Patients with hypertension (blood pressure (BP) ≥140/90 mm Hg or antihypertensive drug use) aged 18-80 years, being 150 men and 332 women, had weight, height, waist circumference (WC), hip circumference, body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), and waist-to-square height ratio (WHt(2)R) calculated. Diabetes was diagnosed by fasting blood glucose ≥126 mg/dl or antidiabetic drug use (23% of the sample).
Results: All anthropometric indexes were associated with diabetes in a modified Poisson regression, adjusting for age, smoking, and physical activity, in women, but not in men. In men, only the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) for WHR was statistically associated with diabetes (0.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.57-0.77). A cutoff of ≥0.95 had sensitivity of 84.6% (73.3-95.9) and negative post-test probability of 12.8% (3.2-22.4). Among women, WC >88 cm, WHR ≥0.85, and WHtR > 0.54 had sensitivity >93% and negative post-test probability <7.5%.
Conclusions: WHR ≥0.85, WC >88.0 cm, and WHtR >0.54 for women and WHR ≥0.95 for men are highly suggestive of diabetes among this population of hypertensive patients. Indexes below these cutoffs turn diabetes unlikely in this context. The investigation of reproducibility of this performance in other outpatient clinics is warranted.