Obesity indices and cardiometabolic diseases in postmenopausal women in Ilorin, Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE

Obesity is a known risk factor for the development of cardiometabolic diseases (CMD) globally. The study focus was finding the best predictor of CMD among the four anthropometric indices of obesity studied: body mass index (BMI), waist to hip ratio (WHR), waist to height ratio (WHtR) and visceral adiposity index (VAI).

METHOD: A total of 310 postmenopausal women participated in the study. Sociodemographic data, anthropometric measurements, serum high-density lipoprotein and serum triglycerides were taken for all participants. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to detect the valid cut-off point for the VAI.

RESULTS

The VAI cut-off point for diagnosing visceral adiposity dysfunction (VAD) in the study was >1.92. The prevalence of peripheral obesity in the study was 18.1%, while that of truncal obesity was 76.5% using the WHR and 81.9% using the WHtR. The prevalence of CMD in the study was 51.6% while that for VAD was 60.3%. The WHtR (p = 0.041) and the VAI (p < 0.001) had statistically significant associations with the presence of CMD among the participants but only the VAI was found to be a significant predictor of CMD.

CONCLUSION

We recommend use of the VAI for CMD screening among postmenopausal women.