Association of Visceral Fat Index and Percentage Body Fat and Anthropometric Measures with Myocardial Infarction and Stroke

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of bioelectrical obesity indices (percentage body fat, PBF; visceral fat index, VFI) on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and evaluate the optimal cut-off values for myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. Method: A community-based cross-sectional study including 6027 males and 8874 females aged ≥ 35 years was conducted in 66 sample sites by multistage random sampling method from Henan Province, China. Result: The area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of PBF was highest in males for MI (0.651) and stroke (0.623) and in females for MI (0.618) and stroke (0.611). VFI and PBF had better discriminatory power in males of 35~54 age groups for MI (AUC=0.667) and stroke (AUC=0.702), respectively. Optimal cut-off values for VFI and PBF in males/females were approximately 15 /10 and 25% /36%, respectively. Combined two high levels of waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), VFI and PBF could increase higher adjusted OR for MI (1.41-2.81) and stroke (1.49-2.08). Conclusion: High level of PBF and VFI could increase the risk of CVD. PBF may be a more sensitive indicator of CVD. The combination of WHtR, PBF and VFI was found to be associated with greater OR of CVD than them alone.