The association of central and extremity circumference with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: Central obesity increases the risk of several diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer. However, the association between extremity obesity and mortality has not been extensively evaluated. The objective of this study was to investigate the quantitative effects of waist circumference (WC), arm circumference (AC), calf circumference (CC), and thigh circumference (TC) on all-cause mortality and CVD mortality. METHODS: The study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) sample survey from 1999 to 2006. A total of 19,735 participants were included in the study. We divided the participants into four groups (Q1–Q4) and used Q1 as a reference to compare the risk of all-cause mortality and CVD mortality in Q2–Q4. COX proportional hazard regression model was used to analyze the relationship between WC, AC, CC and TC on all-cause and CVD mortality. In addition, we conducted a stratified analysis of gender. RESULTS: After a mean follow-up of 11.8 years, we observed a total of 3,446 deaths, of which 591 were due to cardiovascular disease. The results showed that for both men and women, compared to the first group, the risk of all-cause mortality was significantly higher in the other three groups of WC and significantly lower in the other three groups of AC, CC, and TC. Similar results were observed after adjusting for confounding factors such as demographics. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that all-cause and CVD mortality are positively associated with measures of central obesity and negatively associated with measures of extremity obesity, and that AC, CC, and TC can be used as potential tools to measure prognosis in the general population.