Associations of Visceral and Subcutaneous Fat Areas With the Prevalence of Metabolic Risk Factor Clustering in 6,292 Japanese Individuals: The Hitachi Health Study

OBJECTIVE: We examined the relationships of visceral fat area (VFA), subcutaneous fat area, and waist circumference, determined using computed tomography (CT), and BMI with metabolic risk factors in a large Japanese population. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Study subjects comprised 6,292 men and women who participated in the Hitachi Health Study and received CT examinations in 2007 and 2008. RESULTS: Regarding the clustering of metabolic risk factors, the odds ratios (ORs) for the VFA quintiles were 1.0 (ref.), 2.4, 3.4, 5.0, and 9.7 for men and 1.0 (ref.), 1.5, 2.6, 4.6, and 10.0 for women (P < 0.001 for trends in both sexes). For the highest quintiles, the OR for VFA was 1.5 to 2 times higher than those of the other anthropometric indexes in both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated a superior performance of VFA to predict the clustering of metabolic risk factors compared with other anthropometric indexes.