Predictive Ability of Seven Anthropometric Indices for Cardiovascular Risk Markers and Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability of 7 anthropometric indices in predicting cardiovascular risk markers (CRMs) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Brazilian adolescents.

Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted with 1,069 participants of the Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescents Study aged 12-17 years. Receiver operating characteristics curves were plotted, and area under curve (AUC) was calculated for body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHR), conicity index (CoI), body shape index (BSI), adjusted BSI for adolescents (adjusted BSI), and body roundness index (BRI).

Results: In girls, reliability of BMI, WC, WHR, and BRI was sufficient (≥.6 AUC <.7) only to predict high blood pressure. Among boys, reliability of BMI, WC, WHR, BRI, and adjusted BSI ranged from good to sufficient (≥6 AUC <.8) to predict insulin resistance and high blood pressure, but poor to sufficient (≥.5 AUC <.7) for high total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein. For both sexes, CoI and BSI presented AUC ≤.5 for all CRM. A majority of the anthropometric indices showed AUC ≥.9 for MetS.

Conclusion: Reliability of CoI, BSI, adjusted BSI, and BRI is not superior to BMI, WC, and WHR in predicting CRM and MetS. All the anthropometric indices had excellent predictive capacity for MetS, but limited accuracy for CRM. Among the evaluated indices, we recommend the use of cutoff point WHR ≥.55 to screening MetS in girls and boys because of its easy to measure and interpretation.