Comparison of lipid accumulation product and body mass index as indicators of diabetes diagnosis among 215,651 Chinese adults

PURPOSE: We aimed to assess if lipid accumulation product (LAP) could outperform body mass index (BMI) as a marker for diabetes diagnosis. METHODS: We analyzed the results of a national physical examination project in Urumqi, China. This project was conducted in 442 community clinics in Urumqi from October 2016 to February 2017. RESULTS: LAP was highly correlated with diabetes. The subjects with higher amounts of LAP had a higher risk of diabetes, and the prevalence of diabetes in the fourth quartile of LAP was dramatically higher than in the first quartile (5.72% vs. 21.76%). The adjusted odds ratios (AOR) associated with diabetes in the fourth quartile of LAP was significantly higher than the AOR associated with diabetes in the first quartile, and when BMI ≥ 28 kg/m(2) was compared with BMI < 28 kg/m(2) (3.24 (3.11, 3.37) vs. 1.65 (1.60, 1.70)). The LAP’s area under the curve (AUC) was significantly higher than the BMI’s AUC when based on diabetes (0.655 vs. 0.604). In the normal BMI group, 34% of participants had a LAP value higher than the cutoff point found during ROC analysis. In this subgroup, we observed a significantly higher prevalence of diabetes that was similar to that of the subgroup with a BMI ≥ 28 kg/m(2), and both of their LAP values were higher than the cutoff point. CONCLUSION: When use as a tool for diabetes diagnosis, LAP performed better than BMI, implying that LAP could be a preferable anthropometry assessment.