Comparing measures of overall and central obesity in relation to cardiometabolic risk factors among US Hispanic/Latino adults

OBJECTIVE: US Hispanics/Latinos have high prevalence of obesity and related comorbidities. We compared overall and central obesity measures in associations with cardiometabolic outcomes among US Hispanics/Latinos. METHODS: Multivariable regression assessed cross-sectional relationships of six obesity measures with cardiometabolic outcomes among 16,415 Hispanics/Latinos aged 18-74 years. RESULTS: BMI was moderately correlated with waist-to-hip ratio (WHR; women, r=0.37; men, r=0.58) and highly correlated with other obesity measures (r≥0.87) (P<0.0001). All measures of obesity were correlated with unfavorable levels of glycemic traits, blood pressure, and lipids, with similar r-estimates for each obesity measure (P<0.05). Multivariable-adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) for diabetes (women, 6.7 [3.9, 11.5]; men, 3.9 [2.2, 6.9]), hypertension (women, 2.4 [1.9, 3.1]; men, 2.5 [1.9, 3.4]), and dyslipidemia (women, 2.1 [1.8, 2.4]; men, 2.2 [1.9, 2.6]) were highest for individuals characterized as overweight/obese (BMI≥25kg/m(2)) and abnormal WHR (women, ≥0.85; men, ≥0.90), compared to those with normal BMI and WHR (P<0.0001). Among normal-weight individuals, abnormal WHR was associated with increased cardiometabolic condition prevalence (P<0.05), particularly diabetes (women, PR=4.0 [2.2, 7.1]; men, PR=3.0 [1.6, 5.7]). CONCLUSIONS: Obesity measures were associated with cardiometabolic risk factors to a similar degree in US Hispanics/Latinos. WHR is useful to identify individuals with normal BMI at increased cardiometabolic risk.