Comparative Evaluation of Adiposity Indices as Predictors of Hypertension among Brazilian Adults

PURPOSE: To compare several anthropometric indices in the prediction of hypertension among adults. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. Five hundred and eighteen adult men and women (40.9 ± 10.5 years; 1.62 ± .09 m; 72.3 ± 15.6 kg) volunteered to participate and underwent blood pressure and anthropometric measures. Anthropometric assessments were used to calculate body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-stature ratio (WSR), body adiposity index (BAI), and conicity index (C). Comparisons between men and women were carried out by independent t-test and chi-square test. Cut-off points for each adiposity index to predict hypertension were obtained using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analyses. The significance level was set at P ≤ .05. RESULTS: All adiposity indices regarding both genders showed significant odds ratios, except BAI (odds ratio: 1.534; CI: 0.916–2.571) for women. In men, WHR and WSR were considered as more balanced indices regarding their sensitivity (AUC: 73.8 and 71.4, respectively) and specificity (AUC: 77.6 and 73.1, respectively). In women, WHR and WSR presented areas under the ROC curves higher than C index (P = .007) and BAI (P = .03), respectively. CONCLUSION: Indices that consider abdominal adiposity such as WC, WHR, and WSR have a stronger relationship with hypertension compared to others.