Association between Body Roundness Index and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients: evidence from a prospective cohort study in Southern China.

BACKGROUND

The Body Roundness Index (BRI) is an anthropometric index for predicting the proportion of body fat and visceral adipose tissue, yet its association with survival in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between BRI and the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in MHD patients.

METHODS

This is a secondary analysis of a multicenter prospective cohort study that included 1034 MHD patients aged >18 years. Participants were stratified into groups by BRI quartile. Cox models and multivariable-adjusted restricted cubic spline were performed to analyze the association of BRI with all-cause and CVD mortality after adjusting for confounding factors. C-statistic, net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) were utilized to evaluate the predictive performance of BRI.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 4.4 years, we observed a total of 548 all-cause deaths and 297 CVD deaths. The analysis revealed significant positive associations between BRI and both all-cause and CVD mortality. After adjusting for confounding factors, each 1-standard deviation increase in BRI was associated with a 27% higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR 1.27; 95% CI 1.22, 1.42) and a corresponding 40% increased risk of CVD mortality (HR 1.40; 95% CI 1.18, 1.67). In the combined analysis with body mass index (BMI), individuals with normal BMI (<24.0 kg/m²) but elevated BRI (≥3.99) exhibited the highest risk of all-cause mortality, a trend that was similarly observed for CVD mortality. Moreover, the model integrating BRI with BMI demonstrated superior predictive performance compared with the baseline model and models with either variable alone, as assessed by the C-statistic, NRI and IDI.

CONCLUSION

High BRI independently predicted all-cause and CVD mortality in MHD patients. The combined assessment of BRI and BMI facilitates the early identification of high-risk patients and may enable more personalized patient management.