Association between Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat and the risk of hypertension in different ethnic groups: a prospective cohort study in Southwest China

Fuyan Zhang; Yiying Wang; Jie Zhou; Lisha Yu; Ziyun Wang; Tao Liu; Yangwen Yu

doi:10.3389/fendo.2024.1302387

Association between Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat and the risk of hypertension in different ethnic groups: a prospective cohort study in Southwest China

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2024 Mar 18:15:1302387. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1302387. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Fuyan Zhang¹, Yiying Wang², Jie Zhou², Lisha Yu², Ziyun Wang¹, Tao Liu^{1

2}, Yangwen Yu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, the Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Disease Control, Ministry of Education, Guizhou Medical University, Guizhou, China.
² Guizhou Province Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Chronic Disease Prevention and Cure Research Institute, Guiyang, China.

Abstract

Objective: Visceral adipose tissue assessment holds significant importance in hypertension prevention. This study aimed to explore the association between the Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat (METS-VF), a new indicator based on laboratory and anthropometry measures, and hypertension risk and to further investigate the association between the METS-VF and the risk of hypertension in different ethnic groups.

Methods: In this study, a total of 9,280 people from 48 townships in 12 districts (counties) of Guizhou Province were selected for the survey using a multistage cluster random sampling method, and 5,127 cases were finally included in the analysis after excluding those with missing relevant data, losing visits, dying at follow-up, those who suffered from hypertension at baseline, and those whose information on the outcome of hypertension was not clear. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) between METS-VF and incident hypertension, and an accelerated failure time (AFT) model was applied to analyze the association between METS-VF and the onset time of hypertension.

Results: The total person-years (PYs) of the 5,127 subjects were 36,188.52 years, and the median follow-up time was 6.64 years. During follow-up, 1,127 patients were newly diagnosed with hypertension, and the incidence density was 31.14/1,000 PYs. After adjusting for multivariables, compared with the METS-VF first (Q1), the third (Q3) and fourth (Q4) groups of the METS-VF increased by 29.9% and 61.5%, respectively (HR = 1.299 [1.061, 1.590] and 1.615 [1.280, 2.036]). The risk of hypertension increased with higher METS-VF values (HR = 1.323 [1.167, 1.500], p_trend < 0.001). In the Han Chinese population, Q2 and Q3 increased the risk of hypertension (HR = 1.459 [1.111, 1.917], 1.999 [1.417, 2.718]), and the onset of hypertension was advanced by 0.653 (β = -0.653 (-0.930, -0.375]) years for per 1 unit increase in METS-VF. However, these associations were not found in ethnic minorities.

Conclusion: METS-VF was significantly positively associated with the risk of hypertension, and the association was different among ethnic groups.

Keywords: METS-VF; ethnicity; hypertension; prospective cohort study; visceral fat.

MeSH terms

Ethnicity
Humans
Hypertension* / complications
Intra-Abdominal Fat
Metabolic Syndrome* / epidemiology
Prospective Studies

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Guizhou Province Science and Technology Support Program (Grant number: Qiankehe [2018]2819) and the Provincial Key Construction Discipline Project of the Guizhou Provincial Health Commission.