Identifying metabolic syndrome in migrant Asian Indian adults with anthropometric and visceral fat action points

• Published in: Diabetology and metabolic syndrome 2022-07, Vol.14 (1), p.1-96, Article 96
• Main Authors: Sluyter, John D, Plank, Lindsay D, Rush, Elaine C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdomen; Adults; Anthropometry; Blood cholesterol; Blood pressure; Body composition; Body fat; Body measurements; Boxes; Cholesterol; Diagnosis; Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry; Females; Glucose; High density lipoprotein; Insulin; Laboratories; Males; Medical diagnosis; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolic syndrome; Obesity; Risk factors; Sex differences; Skinfold thickness; South Asian; Triglycerides; Vertebrae; Visceral fat
• ISSN: 1758-5996; 1758-5996
• DOI: 10.1186/s13098-022-00871-4

Background Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a clustering of metabolic risk factors, including large waist circumference (WC). Other anthropometric parameters and visceral fat mass (VFM) predicted from these may improve MetS detection. Our aim was to assess the ability of such parameters to predict this clustering in a cross-sectional, diagnostic study. Method Participants were 82 males and 86 females, aged 20-74 years, of Asian Indian ethnicity. VFM was estimated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) through identification of abdominal subcutaneous fat layer boundaries. Non-anthropometric metabolic risk factors (triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose) were defined using MetS criteria. We estimated the ability of anthropometry and VFM to detect [greater than or equal to] 2 of these factors by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and precision-recall curves. Results Two or more non-anthropometric metabolic risk factors were present in 45 (55%) males and 29 (34%) females. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) to predict [greater than or equal to] 2 of these factors using WC was 0.67 (95% confidence interval: 0.55-0.79) in males and 0.65 (0.53-0.77) in females. Optimal WC cut-points were 92 cm for males (63% accuracy) and 79 cm for females (53% accuracy). VFM, DXA-measured sagittal diameter and suprailiac skinfold thickness yielded higher AUC point estimates (by up to 0.06), especially in females where these measures improved accuracy to 69%, 69% and 65%, respectively. Pairwise combinations that included WC further improved accuracy. Conclusion Our findings indicate that cut-points for readily obtained measures other than WC, or in combination with WC, may provide improved detection of MetS risk factor clusters. Keywords: Visceral fat, Diagnosis, Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, Metabolic syndrome, South Asian