Relationship of Different Anthropometric Indices with Vascular Ageing in an Adult Population without Cardiovascular Disease-EVA Study

Leticia Gómez-Sánchez; Marta Gómez-Sánchez; Emiliano Rodríguez-Sánchez; Carmen Patino-Alonso; Rosario Alonso-Dominguez; Natalia Sanchez-Aguadero; Cristina Lugones-Sánchez; Ines Llamas-Ramos; Luis García-Ortiz; Manuel A Gómez-Marcos; On Behalf Of The Eva Investigators

doi:10.3390/jcm11092671

Relationship of Different Anthropometric Indices with Vascular Ageing in an Adult Population without Cardiovascular Disease-EVA Study

J Clin Med. 2022 May 9;11(9):2671. doi: 10.3390/jcm11092671.

Authors

Leticia Gómez-Sánchez^{1

2}, Marta Gómez-Sánchez^{1

2}, Emiliano Rodríguez-Sánchez^{1

2

3

4}, Carmen Patino-Alonso^{1

2

5}, Rosario Alonso-Dominguez^{1

2

6}, Natalia Sanchez-Aguadero^{1

2

6}, Cristina Lugones-Sánchez^{1

2}, Ines Llamas-Ramos^{1

2

3

6}, Luis García-Ortiz^{1

2

3

7}, Manuel A Gómez-Marcos^{1

2

3

4}, On Behalf Of The Eva Investigators

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
² Primary Care Research Unit of Salamanca (APISAL), 37005 Salamanca, Spain.
³ Health Service of Castile and Leon (SACyL), 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
⁴ Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain.
⁵ Statistics Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
⁶ Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain.
⁷ Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain.

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to analyse the capacity of different anthropometric indices to predict vascular ageing and this association in Spanish adult population without cardiovascular disease. A total of 501 individuals without cardiovascular disease residing in the capital of Salamanca (Spain) were selected (mean age: 55.9 years, 50.3% women), through stratified random sampling by age and sex. Starting from anthropometric measurements such as weight, height, and waist circumference, hip circumference, or biochemical parameters, we could estimate different indices that reflected general obesity, abdominal obesity, and body fat distribution. Arterial stiffness was evaluated by measuring carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) using a SphygmoCor^® device. Vascular ageing was defined in three steps: Step 1: the participants with vascular injury were classified as early vascular ageing (EVA); Step 2: classification of the participants using the 10 and 90 percentiles of cf-PWV in the study population by age and sex in EVA, healthy vascular ageing (HVA) and normal vascular ageing (NVA); Step 3: re-classification of participants with arterial hypertension or type 2 diabetes mellitus included in HVA as NVA. The total prevalence of HVA and EVA was 8.4% and 21.4%, respectively. All the analysed anthropometric indices, except waist/hip ratio (WHpR), were associated with vascular ageing. Thus, as the values of the different anthropometric indices increase, the probability of being classified with NVA and as EVA increases. The capacity of the anthropometric indices to identify people with HVA showed values of area under the curve (AUC) ≥ 0.60. The capacity to identify people with EVA, in total, showed values of AUC between 0.55 and 0.60. In conclusion, as the values of the anthropometric indices increased, the probability that the subjects presented EVA increased. However, the relationship of the new anthropometric indices with vascular ageing was not stronger than that of traditional parameters. Therefore, BMI and WC can be considered to be the most useful indices in clinical practice to identify people with vascular ageing in the general population.

Keywords: anthropometric indices; early vascular ageing; healthy vascular ageing; obesity.

Abstract

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