A comparison of body mass index and body fat percentage for predicting cardiovascular disease risk

Abstract

Background

Anthropometric indices such as body mass index (BMI) and percent body fat (PBF) are easily measurable and have been consistently reported to be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors.

Aims

We aimed to compare the association of several CVD risk factors with BMI and PBF to determine which of these adiposity indices had the greater predictive value.

Methods and materials

Data were derived from the MASHAD cohort study. The cohort was categorised into 4 groups: group 1 (low or normal BMI and PBF, N = 1670), group 2 (low or normal BMI but high PBF, N = 992), group 3 (high BMI and low or normal PBF, N = 837), and group 4 (high BMI and PBF, N = 6245). The best cut-off points were defined by ROC analysis.

Results

BMI was more strongly correlated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum urate, serum hsCRP, fasting plasma glucose and TC/HDL-C ratio compared to PBF. But BMI was less strongly correlated with three lipid parameters (total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol), Logistic regression analysis showed that BMI was the best predictor for the majority of risk factors, apart from LDL-C in men and LDL-C, TC and non-HDL-C (NHC) in women. ROC analysis showed that BMI had a greater AUC for risk factors other than for SBP, HTN, DM, TC, LDL-C, impaired fasting glucose, non-HDL cholesterol in men and for TC, TG, TC, DBP, HTN, and non-HDL Cholesterol, among female subjects.

Conclusions

The results suggest that in our population from northeastern Iran, BMI may be a better predictor of several CVD risk factors compared to PBF.