A novel clinical diagnostic marker predicting the relationship between visceral adiposity and renal function evaluated by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the Chinese physical examination population

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The effect of body fat deposition on the kidney has received increasing attention. The Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) is an important indicator of recent research. The purpose of this study was to explore the predictive value of CVAI and other organ obesity indicators in predicting CKD in Chinese residents. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study of 5355 subjects was performed. First, the study utilized locally estimated scatterplot smoothing to describe the dose–response relationship between the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and CVAI. The L1-penalized least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression algorithm was used for covariation screening, and the correlation between CVAI and eGFR was quantified using multiple logistic regression. At the same time, the diagnostic efficiency of CVAI and other obesity indicators was evaluated by ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: CVAI and eGFR were negatively correlated. Using group one as the control, an odds ratio (OR) was calculated to quantify CVAI quartiles (ORs of Q2, Q3, and Q4 were 2.21, 2.99, and 4.42, respectively; P for trend < 0.001). CVAI had the maximum area under the ROC curve compared with other obesity indicators, especially in the female population (AUC: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.71–0.76). CONCLUSIONS: CVAI is closely linked to renal function decline and has certain reference value for the screening of CKD patients, particularly in women. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12944-023-01783-6.