A body shape index in a small sample of Saudi adults with type 2 diabetes

CONTEXT: Overweight and obesity are assessed clinically using the body mass index (BMI), but the index is criticized as a crude measure of relative fat-muscle composition. The recently introduced a body shape index (ABSI) is an independent and more accurate predictor of mortality than other anthropometric measures. AIMS: Describe ABSI in relation to other clinical and cardiometabolic risk factors in Saudi patients with type 2 diabetes. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional, armed forces diabetes clinic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Demographic and clinical data were obtained from randomly sampled patients with type 2 diabetes. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The t test, analysis of variance, or Chi-square test as appropriate, and contingency table analysis. RESULTS: The 120 patients with type 2 diabetes (60 males, 60 females) had a mean (SD) age of 52.5 (9.3) years and BMI of 31.8 (5.5). Comparisons of ABSI and ABSI mortality risk categories with clinical and cardiovascular risk factors were statistically nonsignificant. Patients with below-average BMI (z < 0) (n = 33) were more likely to have above-average ABSI (z > 0) (27.5%) than a below-average ABSI z score (17.5%). CONCLUSION: These data provide a baseline assessment useful in further studies using larger datasets to confirm whether the ABSI can prove to be clinically useful and serve as a better predictor of mortality risk in the Saudi population. These local data should be of interest to the primary care practitioner who may be thinking of applying these new measures in their primary care practice.