Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Cheras, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Cheras, Malaysia
  • 3 Centre of Drug Delivery Research, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Campus, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 4 School of Healthcare Sciences, Faculty of Health Science, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Cheras, Malaysia
Ann Hum Biol, 2022 Dec;49(7-8):299-304.
PMID: 36373795 DOI: 10.1080/03014460.2022.2147585

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Body mass index (BMI) is a widely used surrogate tool to screen for obesity/adiposity, but it cannot differentiate between lean and fat mass. Thus, alternative tools to detect excess adiposity should be identified.

AIM: This study aimed to compare the performance of BMI, waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) in predicting Malaysians with excess body fat defined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 399 men and women aged ≥40 years were recruited from Klang Valley, Malaysia. The body composition of the subjects, including body fat percentage, was measured by DXA. The weight, height, WC and WHtR of the subjects were also determined.

RESULTS: BMI [sensitivity = 55.7%, specificity = 86.1%, area under curve (AUC) = 0.709] and WC (sensitivity = 62.7%, specificity = 90.3%, AUC = 0.765) performed moderately in predicting excess adiposity. Their performance and sensitivity improved with lower cut-off values. The performance of WHtR (sensitivity = 96.6%, specificity = 36.1, AUC = 0.664) was optimal at the standard cut-off value and no modification was required.

CONCLUSION: The performance of WC in identifying excess adiposity was greater than BMI and WHtR based on AUC values. Modification of cut-off values for BMI and WC could improve their performance and should be considered by healthcare providers in screening individuals with excess adiposity.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.